Former Texas Congressman Was One of the People Who Wanted Ukraine Ambassador Fired
After months of hearing complaints by his fellow Republicans, President Donald Trump fired Marie Yovanovitch, the then-ambassador to Ukraine. And one of those Trump allies is putting his name on his (productive) whining in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani told the Journal that Yovanovitch was impeding his work to get officials in Ukraine to investigation Joe and Hunter Biden.
But the oddest part of this Wall Street Journal exclusive is the appearance of a former Texas congressman near the end of the story. Pete Sessions, who has decided he no longer wants to live in Dallas and wants to represent Fort Worth, was also calling for Yovanovitch’s removal. Sessions (who had yet to be defeated by Rep. Colin Allred) sent a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in spring 2018 that said he was told that Yovanovitch “was displaying a bias against the president in private conversations,” the Journal reported.
Sessions wasn’t the only person to put it in writing. Giuliani delivered a 9-page document in late March to Pompeo that “detailed” the Biden-in-Ukraine corruption conspiracy and how close Yovanovitch was to the Biden. Giuliani said Yovanovitch was “very close” to the former veep.
Giuliani told the newspaper that Pompeo had asked for more documentation:
“He called me back and he said they were going to investigate,” Mr. Giuliani said of the secretary of state, saying Mr. Pompeo asked for additional documents to back up the allegations. “The reason I gave the information to the secretary was I believed that he should know that the president’s orders to fire her were being blocked by the State Department.”
Yovanovitch left the diplomatic post in May, which is when a comedian was inaugurated as the president of Ukraine. The Wall Street Journal pointed out that Yovanovitch’s posting ended “at least three months” before the “customary three-year diplomatic tenure.”
Trump gave a nothing answer on Thursday when asked by reporters about her dismissal. “I don’t know if I recalled her or somebody recalled her, but I heard very, very bad things about her for a long period of time. Not good,” Trump told reporters.