Marie Yovanovitch, Ukraine ambassador, recall sparks outrage from Democrats

The Trump administration on Tuesday abruptly recalled its ambassador to Ukraine, creating a key diplomatic vacancy abroad and sparking outrage from critics who say the move was a “political hit job” and “completely undeserved.”

Although the specific cause of Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch’s dismissal remains unclear, it came after sharp criticism of her work by conservative media outlets.

While the administration and Republican lawmakers have stayed quiet about the development, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland and Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel of New York, quickly characterized the dismissal as “outrageous.”

The two Democrat lawmakers claimed Tuesday that her removal stemmed from her anti-corruption work and advocacy for transparent governance in Ukraine that had triggered sharp criticism from various Ukrainian political actors and allies of President Trump.

“The White House’s outrageous decision to recall her is a political hit job and the latest in this administration’s campaign against career State Department personnel,” Mr. Hoyer and Mr. Engel said in a statement, alleging that “allies of President Trump had joined foreign actors in lobbying for the ambassador’s dismissal.”

The State Department downplayed the allegations and said Ms. Yovanovitch, a 60-year-old career diplomat appointed by former President Obama, is “concluding her 3-year diplomatic assignment in Kyiv in 2019 as planned.”

A department spokesperson told The Washington Times her departure was aligned with the presidential transition soon to occur in Ukraine.

But some conservative media outlets have claimed Ms. Yovanovitch was caught up in a conspiracy surrounding an anti-corruption investigation inside Ukraine. Some reports claimed she faced — but apparently resisted — pressure from the Trump administration to investigate relationships between officials in Ukraine and members of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign.

In March, Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko told The Hill newspaper that Ms. Yovanovitch had given him a list of people, including allies of Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton, that should not be prosecuted as part of any corruption probes.

At the time, President Trump tweeted story, which ran under the headline “As Russia collusion fades, Ukrainian plot to help Clinton emerges.” Mr. Trump claimed it was evidence that foreign powers had conspired to help elect Mrs. Clinton, not him.

The State Department, however, called Mr. Lutsenko’s comments to The Hill an “outright fabrication,” and he later walked back the remarks.

But tension around the story grew deeper when Donald Trump Jr. tweeted that Ms. Yovanovitch is a “joker” and called for her removal. He linked to a Daily Wire report that highlighted a variety of unconfirmed allegations against the ambassador that had been made on Fox News, including a quote from former federal prosecutor Joe diGenova who said Ms. Yovanovitch had “bad mouthed” Mr. Trump.

The mudslinging coincided heated politics in Washington over Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election, a probe that had targeted and resulted in a conviction of former Trump 2016 campaign chairman Paul Manafort on charges related to his own work in Ukraine.

Ms. Yovanovitch’s dismissal comes at a crucial moment as Ukraine transitions to a new president. TV comedian-turned-politician Volodymyr Zelenskiy unseated incumbent Ukranian President Petro Poroshenko by a landslide in a runoff election last month.

The ambassador vacancy is “not a good thing for American interests in Ukraine,” former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine John Herbst told The Washington Times. “This is an unfortunate and unfair event for ambassador Yovanovich, completely undeserved. She was a strong ambassador.”

“This is a critical moment in Ukraine,” said Mr. Herbst, who is currently the director of the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center. “You’ll need a strong American voice in Kiev in this period.”