Trump impeachment: Six key moments from explosive testimony of Marie Yovanovitch

Day started with a blast from president and then got only more dramatic

Former Ukraine ambassador Marie Yovanovitch delivered damaging and detailed testimony about how her work was undermined by the efforts of the Trump administration and Rudy Giuliani, and how she felt personally threatened by the president’s comments and actions.

Speaking before the House Intelligence Committee as the third witness to so far deliver public testimony, Ms Yovanovitch said she felt intimated by Donald Trump’s Twitter attacks against her, delivered even while she was speaking.

She also said diplomats across the state department were undermined by attacks on her by the president and his lawyer, Mr Giuliani.

“I do not understand Mr Giuliani’s motives for attacking me, nor can I offer an opinion on whether he believed the allegations he spread about me,” she said. “Clearly, no one at the state department did.”

As the Democrats accused Mr Trump of seeking to intimidate a witness by the bully pulpit of his Twitter account, Republicans sought to question how much Ms Yovanovitch actually knew of the 25 July phone call between the US president and Volodymyr Zelensky. They also asked her to confirm more than once that it is a president’s prerogative to appoint and recall diplomats as and when the commander-in-chief chooses.

Here are six moments that stood out on a day of drama:

Republicans seem to display doubts about effectiveness of their counsel, Steve Castor
At one point Devin Nunes, the senior Republican on the committee, sought and failed to break committee rules by ceding time to someone other than Mr Castor, namely congresswoman Elise Stefanik, an apparent sign Republicans realised Ms Yovanovitch was more than handling his questions, even as he sought to turn the screws.

For the confirmation hearing of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, Republicans on the Senate judiciary committee hired a woman outside counsel, Rachel Mitchell, to question the nominee and Christine Blasey Ford, a woman who accused him of sexual assaulting her. Mr Kavanaugh was subsequently confirmed to the court.

Marie Yovanovitch saying she felt intimidated by Donald Trump’s Twitter attack on her
As the diplomat was speaking, Mr Trump attacked by saying: “Everywhere Marie Yovanovitch went turned bad. She started off in Somalia, how did that go.”

Asked by committee chair Adam Schiff about the intention of the broadside, Ms Yovanovitch said: “I think the effect is trying to be intimidating.” Later, Ms Schiff said he believed the president had intimidated witnesses in real time. Some suggested his actions could be included in any articles of impeachment. Mr Schiff added: “Some of us here take witness intimidation very seriously.”

Ms Yovanovitch evoked Benghazi, the deadly 2012 attack that Republicans once seized on as proof of Democratic negligence towards US diplomacy abroad
The witness noted the state department was made up of officials who risked and lost their lives in service of their country. She named “Ambassador Chris Stevens, Sean Patrick Smith, Ty Woods, and Glen Doherty” specifically in her comments, referencing the US diplomats and security operatives who died during the attack in Benghazi, Libya.

Evoking that attack was striking, considering the substance of the allegations against Mr Trump, including that he is allowing nefarious forces to undermine the state department’s missions abroad, and using US diplomatic might to compel foreign governments to launch investigations to serve his personal political needs. Republicans have stood by Mr Trump’s side, but launched repeated investigation into Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration’s handling of Benghazi, and ultimately found no evidence of wrongdoing.

Ms Yovanovitch says circumstances of her removal from Ukraine dealt a blow to the US diplomatic corps’ morale
During opening remarks, Ms Yovanovitch described the Trump administration’s impact on the state department’s operations in grave terms, saying “foreign service professionals are being denigrated and undermined, [and] the institution is being denigrated” and “the state department is being hollowed out from within”.

She claimed that she was removed from her post in Ukraine after a smear campaign orchestrated by Mr Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani — even though the state department itself knew those claims to be false. She said: “It’s I think a big hit for morale both in the US embassy Kiev but also more broadly in the state department.”

Ms Yovanovitch says Ukrainian establishment hoped her removal would make it easier to do things counter to US interests
In response to a question from GOP counsel Steve Castor, she said there were elements in Ukraine keen to see her gone, along with individuals in the US, including two recently indicted associates of Mr Giuliani, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman.

She said: “I think that, in addition, there were Americans, these two individuals who were working with mayor Giuliani, Mr Parnas and Mr Fruman, who have recently been indicted by the Southern District of New York, who indicated that they wanted to change out the ambassador, and I think they must have had some reason for that.”

Asked if there were elements of the Ukraine establishment out to undermine Mr Trump, she said: “There weren’t. We didn’t really see it that way.”

Devin Nunes again attacks fact much of testimony has been behind closed doors
The most senior Republican congressman on the committee, as with his colleagues, drew little blood from Ms Yovanovitch, who appeared well-prepared and deeply knowledgeable about her area of expertise. As Republicans have repeatedly sought to do, however, he did make a decent jab about about Democrats’ handling of the probe, and the fact much of the testimony has been in private, something Democrats have said is essential.

“Ambassador, I want to congratulate you – you’ve been down in the secret deposition meeting rooms, you graduated for your performance today,“ he said. ‘We will be back down in the basement of the Capitol, doing more of these secret depositions.”