Fox News’s Tucker Carlson revealed Thursday that Marie Yovanovitch, former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, communicated through her personal email with a Democratic congressional staffer, contradicting her deposition on Capitol Hill last month.
Yovanovitch, who’s a key witness in the Dems’ impeachment inquiry, told Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) that she never responded to an Aug. 14 email she received from the staffer, Laura Carey.
But emails obtained by Carlson’s show reveal that wasn’t the case.
“Before the contents of the whistleblower complaint were known publicly, a Democratic congressional staffer contacted the former American ambassador to Ukraine to discuss what the staffer described as ‘quite delicate and time sensitive questions,'” Carlson said.
“This show has obtained exclusively an email for that Democratic staffer for the House Foreign Affairs Committee sent by private email to the former American ambassador Marie Yovanovitch,” Carlson continued. “Yovanovitch, you know, is a key player in the Democrats’ impeachment probe and was recalled from her post in Ukraine by President Trump in May 2019 following allegations of serious partisanship and political bias.”
The email reads:
I’m writing to see if you would have time to meet up for a chat — in particular, I’m hoping to discuss some Ukraine-related oversight questions we are exploring. I’d appreciate the change to ground-truth a few pieces of information with you, some of which are quite delicate/time-sensitive and, thus, we want to make sure we get them right.
Yovanovitch testified that she never directly responded to an email from Carey.
“In fact, it turns out that she did respond,” Carlson said. “She said she ‘looked forward to chatting with [the Democratic staffer].”
“As Congressmen Zeldin pointed out, the ambassador’s original answer, which was dishonest, was given under oath,” he added.
It appears Ambassador Yovanovitch did not accurately answer this question I asked her during her “impeachment inquiry” deposition under oath. https://t.co/2Ju420Pkpb pic.twitter.com/WACsyksMzW
— Lee Zeldin (@RepLeeZeldin) November 8, 2019
“I would highly suspect that this Democratic staffer’s work was connected in some way to the whistleblower’s effort, which has evolved into this impeachment charade,” Zeldin told Fox News on Thursday. “We do know that the whistleblower was in contact with [House Intelligence Committee Chairman] Adam Schiff’s team before the whistleblower had even hired an attorney or filed a whistleblower complaint even though Schiff had lied to the public originally claiming that there was no contact. Additionally, while the contents of the email from this staffer to Ambassador Yovanovitch clearly state what the conversation would be regarding Yovanovitch, when I asked her specifically what the staffer was looking to speak about, did not provide these details.”
“I specifically asked her whether the Democratic staffer was responded to by Yovanovitch or the State Department,” Zeldin continued. “It is greatly concerning that Ambassador Yovanovitch didn’t answer my question as honestly as she should have, especially while under oath.”