The three Democratic heads of the committees of the House of Representatives leading the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump on Monday released the transcripts of the closed-door testimony Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, and Michael McKinley, the former senior adviser to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
In a joint statement, House Intelligence Committee Chariman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., Foreign Affairs Chairman Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., and acting Oversight and Reform Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., said the following:
“As we move towards this new public phase of the impeachment inquiry, the American public will begin to see for themselves the evidence that the committees have collected. With each new interview, we learn more about the president’s attempt to manipulate the levers of power to his personal political benefit.
“The transcripts of interviews with Ambassadors Yovanovitch and McKinley demonstrate clearly how President Trump approved the removal of a highly respected and effective diplomat based on public falsehoods and smears against Ambassador Yovanovitch’s character and her work in support of long-held U.S. foreign policy anticorruption goals.
“Ambassadors Yovanovitch and McKinley’s testimony also demonstrates the contamination of U.S. foreign policy by an irregular back channel that sought to advance the President’s personal and political interests and the serious concerns that this activity elicited across our government.
“Unfortunately, despite those concerns, the transcripts also show clearly that efforts to secure public support for Ambassador Yovanovitch from the senior-most levels of the State Department were never realized, thanks to worry among those leaders that such support would be directly undermined by presidential attacks.”
Yovanovitch's Oct. 11 testimony can be read here. McKinley's Oct. 16 testimony can be read here.
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