Former Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, a key figure at the center of the Democrats’ impeachment investigation, is either a victim of Rudy Giuliani’s misplaced smear campaign or the epitome of an Obama administration holdover deep-state apparatchik working to undermine President Trump. The depiction that makes the most sense depends on which side of Washington’s split-screen partisan views one subscribes to.
The real answer may lie in the more nuanced gray area -- how a senior diplomat carefully navigated her rise up the State Department food chain over the course of three decades and formed ties to key establishment Washington foreign-policy figures who were working to undermine Trump and his America-first agenda.
One thing is clear: Republicans have their work cut out for them in their second go at grilling the three-time ambassador, who was appointed to two of those posts by two GOP presidents, including Trump himself.
Trump’s decision to recall Yovanovitch from her post earlier this year after angry complaints from Giuliani that she was stymying his efforts to investigate Joe and Hunter Biden’s roles in Ukraine has spurred deep resentment in Democrat-dominant foreign service circles and at Foggy Bottom.
The real answer may lie in the more nuanced gray area -- how a senior diplomat carefully navigated her rise up the State Department food chain over the course of three decades and formed ties to key establishment Washington foreign-policy figures who were working to undermine Trump and his America-first agenda.
One thing is clear: Republicans have their work cut out for them in their second go at grilling the three-time ambassador, who was appointed to two of those posts by two GOP presidents, including Trump himself.
Trump’s decision to recall Yovanovitch from her post earlier this year after angry complaints from Giuliani that she was stymying his efforts to investigate Joe and Hunter Biden’s roles in Ukraine has spurred deep resentment in Democrat-dominant foreign service circles and at Foggy Bottom.
Maria Yovanovitch by U.S. Department of State is licensed under Wikimedia Commons Public Domain
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