New Docs Show How State Dept MISLED Top Dem Lawmakers On Why Yovanovitch Was Removed

[kpete]

"A newly released trove of documents shows that the State Department misled top lawmakers about why U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch was removed from her post in May, undercutting the department's official narrative."

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Yovanovitch, a seasoned career diplomat, became one of the key witnesses in the historic impeachment probe that centers on whether Trump improperly withheld military aid from Ukraine unless it agreed to investigate one of his Democratic political rivals. In public and private testimony in recent weeks, Yovanovitch testified that she was asked in March to extend her tour in Ukraine through 2020. But only two months later, she testified, she was abruptly removed from her post following a concerted smear campaign by “people with clearly questionable motives” who were likely angered by her push on anti-corruption reform initiatives in Ukraine.

But that’s not the story the State Department painted for the Democratic lawmakers. In mid-June—two months after Engel and Hoyer sent their letter, and weeks after Yovanovitch was removed from her post—a senior State Department official wrote brief letters to Hoyer and Engel saying that the ambassador “was due to complete her three-year diplomatic assignment in Kyiv this summer” and that she left her post on May 20, “which aligns with the presidential transition in Ukraine.” The letter made no mention of her being asked to extend her post into 2020. It is not common practice for the State Department to switch its ambassadors based on a new foreign leader coming into office.

Hoyer is the House majority leader, and Engel is the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Hoyer criticized the State Department’s letter. “The State Department’s reply that the Ambassador’s assignment was due to be complete is outrageous,” he said in a statement to Foreign Policy. “The Administration’s attempt to mislead Congress about her removal should not be overlooked.”

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https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/11/25/trump-impeachment-state-department-marie-yovanovitch-ukraine-democrats/

Link to tweet

[Iliyah]

1. They lied.

[AtheistCrusader]

5. If their lips are moving...

[MFGsunny]

2. The Enemy Within. Below contempt. n/t

[malaise]

3. Lock them Up

RFN!
Lying to Congress is a crime.

[bitterross]

4. "Misled" translates to lied.

No other way to see that.

[Igel]

7. You need glasses.

I've known teachers told that they would be kept on. By their administrator, based on usual practice and the teacher's file.

But then they got no new contract. Because the administrator's boss said otherwise. Sometimes it was based on a re-reading of the file. Sometimes it was based on campus needs. Sometimes it was based on district requirements.

In that, nobody lied in the sense of saying something they knew wasn't true for the purpose of having another believe it. The lower-ranking administrator was simply in error in making the non-binding verbal commitment. He may have been wrong at the time; circumstances may have falsified what he said later in the contract cycle.

The question is whether the person telling Yovanovitch was going off past practice and nothing more, if that person had ultimate hiring authority, and whether there was some sort of binding contract.

I don't know that this is what happened. But saying this kind of can't possibly happen is simply counterfactual. It can happen, and making a conclusion on the basis of its impossibility doesn't give me confidence in the soundness of the conclusion.

[UTUSN]

6. K&R

[2naSalit]

8. K&R

[calimary]

9. Just more lies, tall tales, misrepresentations, and distortions.

trump is not a king. But in this era, Pinocchio certainly is.