In a new op-ed in The Washington Post, disgruntled former Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch is patting herself on the back for having the so-called courage to testify before the House impeachment inquiry in November. "We did this because it is the American way to speak up about wrongdoing," Yovanovitch writes. Of course, Yovanovitch turned a blind eye when it came to wrongdoing she actually knew something about: the Biden family's conflict of interest in Ukraine.
To recall, Yovanovitch testified she had no firsthand knowledge of Trump's July 25 phone call with the president of Ukraine, no firsthand knowledge about any delay in military aid to Ukraine, and no firsthand knowledge about any discussion regarding any delay in military aid to Ukraine. Yovanovitch was simply an aggrieved former ambassador reeling from the loss of her posh position generously afforded to her by the U.S. taxpayer. Ambassadors serve at the pleasure of the president, which is how Obama was able to fire every Bush-appointed ambassador upon winning his election in 2008. Yovanovitch's testimony was nothing more than an expensive therapy session where the canned ambassador worked through her unresolved feelings about being terminated before captive members of the U.S. Congress. House Democrats thought the president's firing of a career bureaucrat would tarnish Trump's character in the eyes of the American people, the same American people who tuned in by the millions to watch Trump tell a different person every week "you're fired" on the hit TV show The Apprentice.
So Yovanovitch considers it her moral obligation to testify about a phone call she admits to knowing nothing about, but where was this moral imperative when she learned about the Biden family's conflict of interest in Ukraine? In fact, far from speaking out about it, Yovanovitch appears to have lied in her testimony before the House in an effort to conceal her longtime awareness about the Bidens and Burisma.
In her opening statement before the House impeachment hearing in November, Yovanovitch testified, "although I have met former vice president Joe Biden several times over the course of our many years in government service, neither he nor the previous administration ever raised the issue of either Burisma or Hunter Biden with me." But when questioned by Rep. Elise Stefanik, Yovanovitch admitted the Obama State Department had prepped her in advance to handle the apparent conflict of interest regarding the Bidens and Burisma back during her confirmation hearing before the Senate.
"The first time you personally became aware of Burisma was actually when you were being prepared by the Obama State Department for your Senate confirmation hearings, and this was in the form of practice questions and answers," Stefanik said to the former ambassador. "This was your deposition. And you testified in this particular practice Q & A with the Obama State Department, it wasn't just generally about Burisma and corruption. It was specifically about Hunter Biden and Burisma. Is that correct?"
Yovanovitch answered, "Yes. It is."
So, was Yovanotich lying in her opening statement when she said the Obama administration never raised the issue of Burisma or Hunter Biden with her, or was she lying to Rep. Stefanik when she testified to the exact opposite?
Stefanik concluded, "So for the millions of Americans watching, President Obama's own State Department was so concerned about potential conflicts of interest from Hunter Biden's role at Burisma, that they raised it themselves while prepping this wonderful ambassador nominee before her confirmation."
Not sure what's so "wonderful" about an ambassador who's willing to testify about a phone call she knows nothing about while also trying to cover for the conflict of interest regarding the Bidens and Burisma which she was briefed about by the Obama administration back in 2016.
"But our public servants need responsible and ethical political leadership," Yovanovitch writes in her new op-ed. "[The Trump] administration, through acts of omission and commission, has undermined our democratic institutions, making the public question the truth and leaving public servants without the support and example of ethical behavior that they need to do their jobs and advance U.S. interests."
Yovanovitch thinks it is completely ethical for Hunter Biden to make millions off his father's political position but completely unethical for President Trump to ask Ukraine to look into it. And now that Trump has been acquitted by the Senate, Yovanovitch is lecturing Americans about the importance of ethical leadership. We could have used some of that ethical leadership from the former ambassador instead of the blind eye that she turned to the Bidens conflict of interest under the ambassador's watch.