Rep. Mike Turner, Ohio Republican, said that while President Trump’s tweets can be “unfortunate,” they didn’t amount to witness intimidation in the case of Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine.
“I think, along with most people, I find the president’s tweets generally unfortunate,” Mr. Turner, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“It’s certainly not impeachable, and it’s certainly not criminal, and it’s certainly not witness intimidation,” he said. “It certainly wasn’t trying to prevent her or would have prevented her from testifying - she was actually in the process of testifying.”
On Friday, Ms. Yovanovitch testified before the intelligence committee as part of the House’s impeachment inquiry into Mr. Trump.
Mr. Trump had tweeted that everywhere Ms. Yovanovitch went “turned bad.”
“She started off in Somalia, how did that go? Then fast forward to Ukraine, where the new Ukrainian President spoke unfavorably about her in my second phone call with him. It is a U.S. President’s absolute right to appoint ambassadors,” the president tweeted.
Ms. Yovanovitch said the real-time attacks were “very intimidating.”
Asked if he was trying to intimidate Ms. Yovanovitch, Mr. Trump said on Friday that he just wanted “freedom of speech.”
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.