Trump's desertion: former US ambassador testifies despite White House ban

The former US ambassador to Ukraine said Friday that Donald Trump had been pressuring for months to recall him to Washington on the basis of "false accusations" at a much-awaited hearing in the investigation for a explosive procedure of impeachment against the Republican President. This is the first congressional hearing since the White House declared the war on Democrats on Tuesday, announcing that it would cease all cooperation with their investigations.

But despite the White House ban, a breach opened Friday for the Democrats with, in quick succession, the testimony of diplomat Marie Yovanovitch and the announcement that the US Ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, agreed to come next Thursday.

Democrats said they learned Thursday night that US diplomacy forbade, by order of the White House, Ms. Yovanovich to testify. They fought back with a summons and the diplomat was finally heard in Congress since 10:00 (16:00 HB).

His testimony could offer a breakthrough to Democrats. They hope to learn more about Donald Trump's potential pressure on Ukraine so that Kiev looks for compromising information about his rival Democrat Joe Biden.

This request is at the heart of the investigation opened by the opposition to constitute an impeachment case against the American president.

Last spring, Mrs. Yovanovitch was suddenly summoned to return to Washington "in the next plane," she told the officials behind closed doors, according to several US media.

The number two from the US State Department, John Sullivan, had then explained to him that there was a "coordinated campaign against me, and that the department was under pressure from the president to send me back since the summer of 2018," he said. the career diplomat, appointed to this post in 2016 under Democratic President Barack Obama.

"But I could not believe that the US government decides to call back an ambassador based, as far as I know, on unfounded and false accusations from people with obviously dubious motives," she added.

Elected officials want to determine whether the diplomat lost her job because she did not cooperate with the campaign led by Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, to urge Kiev to investigate the Biden.

This summer, Donald Trump had just criticized Ms. Yovanovich during a telephone conversation with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky, at the heart of the Democratic inquiry.

It was on this occasion that Mr. Trump had called Mr. Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, who served from 2014 to 2019 on the board of directors of a major Ukrainian gas group.

While she had already been recalled to Washington in May, Donald Trump had told the Ukrainian president that the former ambassador "did not announce anything good".

"It was nice that you were the first to tell me that it was a bad ambassador because I agree with you 100%," said Mr. Zelensky, elected late April.

And Donald Trump bodes: "Well, things will happen to him."

The case took an unexpected turn with the arrest Thursday of two businessmen who helped Mr. Giuliani in his efforts to convince Ukraine to investigate the Biden.

Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman were arrested in a separate investigation into violations of campaign finance laws. According to the indictment, they had promised to raise funds for a congressional elected official asking him … to convince "the US government to recall the US ambassador to Ukraine".

Marie Yovanovitch's ban on testifying is "the latest example of attempts by the administration (Trump, ed) to hide the facts from the Americans and hinder our investigation," the Democratic leaders of the House of Representatives investigating for impeachment.

On another front, the president suffered a setback Friday: a court of appeal confirmed that his former accounting firm was to provide the Congress with financial documents on its business between 2011 and 2018.