I Could Shoot an Ambassador
Marie Yovanovitch
I Could Shoot an Ambassador on 5th Avenue
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We all heard it:
“I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters. O.K.? It’s like incredible!”[i]
Donald Trump was speaking to a group of potential voters at Sioux Center, Iowa on January 23, 2016. None of us even gasped. It was just a figure of speech by a bombastic Billionaire running for President. He couldn’t possibly mean it, could he?
Later in the campaign there were other troubling words from the candidate. At his rallies, he was quick to direct attention at protesters. He would shout, “Get ‘em the hell outta here!” and make comments like, “ …in the ‘old days’ such a protester would be carried out on a stretcher.’ Then he added, ‘I’d like to punch him in the face’….“[ii] We thought, hey, he didn’t really mean it. It was like that time your sister threatened to kill you if you kept using her lipstick, right? It was just Donald being Donald. But the rhetoric continued throughout the campaign.
Then Trump appeared to encourage gun-toting followers to use their “Second Amendment” power to keep a political opponent from appointing future federal judges. In August of 2016, he told rally-goers, “’ By the way, and if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don't know."[iii] We shook our heads. The guy can’t be serious.
As President, we hoped Trump would grow into the sober responsibilities of the job. We would be disappointed. Instead of using normal diplomatic procedures, he tweeted threats to friend and foe alike. In 2018, he used Twitter to threaten North Korea with nuclear war. “Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!"[iv] He tweeted. This topped the previous threat he made to reporters in August of 2017, “They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.”[v] His other threats against our neighbors and allies mostly involved punitive tariffs if they didn’t do his bidding. Oddly, he never once threatened America’s international nemesis, Russia.
As President, Donald Trump seemed to revel in killing our adversaries. In October of 2019, U.S. Special Operations forces killed ISIS leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Trump publicly asserted, contrary to available information, that Baghdadi had “died like a dog”…. “whimpering and crying and screaming all the way.”[vi] On January 3, 2020, a U.S. drone strike killed Iranian General Qaseim Soleimani on Iraq’s sovereign soil. Killing Solerimani was reportedly the most extreme option presented to Trump for retaliation to an Iranian-supported revolutionary group’s attack that had left one American dead. In spite of the firestorm of criticism for the Soliemani killing which alienated our Iraqi allies and placed our troops and the region in great danger, Trump seemed quite proud. "He was supposed to be invincible," Trump told friends at Mar-a-Lago…. "He was saying bad things about our country. He was saying like, 'We're going to attack your country. We're going to kill your people.' I said 'Look, how much of this shit do we have to listen to?'" [vii]
In the last few weeks we have learned of a number of not so vague threats against Marie Yovanovitch, former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine. This information comes to us from the House impeachment investigation and from a shadowy figure named Lev Parnas. Parnas is a close associate of Donald Trump’s attorney, Rudy Giuliani. He has frequently been photographed in the company of Donald Trump, who claims he barely knows him. Parnas is currently under indictment for campaign finance violations. Specifically, Parnas and Igor Fruman, are accused of funneling illegal foreign donations into domestic political campaigns.[viii] (You can probably guess which party got them.) Both men were arrested as they appeared to be fleeing the country. Fruman has also been an occasional dinner guest of President Donald John Trump.
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Fruman, Parnas, Trump and Giuliani
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Since his arrest, Lev Parnas has been having second thoughts about his relationship with Giuliani and the President. He hired his own attorney after the Trump camp refused to help in his defense. In a recent interview on the Rachael Maddow Show, he seemed to be in great fear for his own safety. He felt that bad things could happen if he were to be incarcerated under Trump’s Justice Department. Perhaps the questionable suicide of pedophile and Trump confident, Jeffrey Epstein, led him to this concern. Now he and his attorney have been making the rounds of the talk show circuit with wild tales and incriminating documents. Perhaps Parnas feels he can stay alive longer by telling what he knows now.
The House Impeachment inquiry revealed some intriguing details about administration efforts to remove our Ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch. Strangely, these efforts were led by the Presidents’ personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani. Like all Ambassadors, Yovanovitch was subject to the employment policies of the U.S. State Department, under Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo. She was a career State Department employee with an excellent record. She was also a formidable opponent of corrupt politicians and businessmen in the Ukraine. Two of her enemies were former top Ukrainian prosecutors. One of them, Victor Shokin, had been forced out of office for corruption by a coalition of American, European and international banking interests. (Yes, this is the same guy Trump claims was ousted by Joe Biden to keep him from investigating Burisma.) Anyway, Shokin had an ax to grind. He saw his opening when Rudy Giuliani showed up looking for dirt on the Bidens. Shokin was ready to make a deal. Dirt for Yovanovitch. This for that. Quid pro quo. Giuliani apparently took the bait. Rudy and his boss, the President, saw Yovanovitch as a barrier to the desired investigation of Burisma and the Bidens. Yovanovitch had to go!
If you watched the Impeachment inquiry, you already know a few things about the Ambassador’s ouster. Since then things gotten even more murky and ugly. Materials released by Lev Parnas have introduced all the elements of an international plot. It isn’t pretty and it is hard to come to grips with the implications. Here’s some of what we know:
On January 24, 2020 we learned of an audio tape featuring among others, Lev Parnas, Igor Fruman and President Trump. (The voices may need further authentication.) The conversation reportedly took place at Trump’s Washington D.C. hotel in April of 2018. Parnas is overheard telling Trump that Ambassador Yovanovitch is a threat to him. He tells Trump, "She's basically walking around telling everybody: 'Wait, he's gonna get impeached. Just wait.'"
Trump then became very concerned and says, "Get rid of her! Get her out tomorrow. I don't care. Get her out tomorrow. Take her out. OK? Do it!”[ix]
These are shockingly strong words for someone who has the power to simply ask his Secretary of State to fire a subordinate. From then on, the fix was in. Rudy Giuliani launched a smear campaign against the Ambassador. Her boss, Mike Pompeo, stood by and did nothing to defend his loyal employee.
The House Impeachment Inquiry, produced more evidence about the campaign to oust Ambassador Yovanovitch. In her testimony she said she felt, “shocked and devastated” by Trump’s personal attacks on her, and that she was “amazed” corrupt elements in Ukraine had found willing American partners to take her down.” She had been abruptly recalled on April 24, 2019. She was led to believe that it was “urgent” and to “get on the first plane out.”
In April of 2019, Robert Hyde, a prolific campaign donor and candidate for Congress from Connecticut, exchanged a bizarre series of text messages with Lev Parnas.
Hyde: "She under heavy protection outside Kiev," "I know crazy s**t." …."My guy thinks maybe FSB..?” (Russian Intelligence) "They are moving her tomorrow,"…. "The guys over they asked me what I would like to do and what is in it for them.…. Wake up Yankees man. She's talked to three people. Her phone is off. Computer is off. She's next to the embassy. Not in the embassy. Private security. Been there since Thursday.”
Parnas: “Interesting”
Hyde: "They know she's a political puppet. They will let me know when she's on the move."
Parnas: “Perfect!”[x]
Then there was this exchange from Hyde to Parnas: “If you want her out, they need to make contact with security forces.” “They are willing to help if we/you would like a price.” “Guess you can do anything in the Ukraine with money … what I was told.” “Wow. Can’t believe Trumo [sic] hasn’t fired this bitch. I’ll get right in [sic] that.”[xi]
Later we learned that Hyde had been getting his informatrion from a Dutchman named Anthony de Caluwe using a number in Belgium. After first denying it, de Caluwe admitted to have been the source of the information. He claimed there was nothing nefarious going on and implied that the encrypted texts were simply a joke.[xii] Caluwe is now suing Parnas for defamation.[xiii]
Looking at the texts, one could surmise that Hyde had someone surveilling Ambassador Yovanovith and that perhaps he was working with them on doing her harm. During his Racheal Maddow interview in January 2020, Parnas tended to downplay this angle. He said Hyde was a notorious drunk and that he (Parnas) was just humoring him.
Chairman Schiff opined, “Getting rid of Ambassador Yovanovitch helped set stage for an irregular channel that could pursue the two investigations that mattered so much to the president, the 2016 conspiracy theory, and most important, an investigation into the 2020 political opponent he apparently feared most, Joe Biden.”[xiv]
In the now infamous July 25, 2019 call between President’s Trump and Zelensky, the former Ambassador’s name came up once again. Trump said, “the ambassador from the United States, the woman (Yovanovitch), was bad news” and “she’s going to go through some things.” It seems Trump still saw her as a threat.
Asked what she thought Trump meant about the “things” she would go through, Yovanovitch said, “It didn’t sound good, It sounded like a threat.” Yovanovitch had earlier described a warning from Ukrainian officials that the president’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, had been in touch with a former Ukrainian prosecutor general, “and that they had plans, and that they were going to, you know, do things, including to me.”[xv]
While Yovanovitch was publicly testifying before the Impeachment Inquiry, Donald Trump tweeted about her. He said, “ Everywhere Marie 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.”
Trump’s ominous tweet was perilously close to witness tampering. (It was also false. The only criticism of Yovanovitch in the July 25 call was by Trump.) Chairman Schiff read the tweet to the Ambassador and asked her how it made her feel. She said she found it “intimidating”.
Marie Yavanovitch has had a 33-year career in the foreign Service. She was born in Canada to parents who had fled Soviet- Era Ukraine. Those who know her well call her Masha. Her current State Department posting is as a Senior Fellow at Georgetown University.
We may never know what threats faced our ambassador to Ukraine, but no American should be placed in such peril for performing their official duties. This is especially true when officials of her own government are involved. After months of prodding and cajoling, the Ukrainian government has finally opened an investigation concerning an American citizen. xvi Unfortunately, it is not the one Trump and Giuliani wanted. They are investigating the harassment and targeting of Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch. Karma can be a Bitch.
LDT
Jan 26, 2020
[i] Video-“I Could.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTACH1eVIaA
[ii] “Video- https://youtu.be/i8_niqRrrtg
[iii] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/aug/09/trump-gun-owners-clinton-judges-second-amendment
[iv] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jan/03/donald-trump-boasts-nuclear-button-bigger-kim-jong-un
[v] https://cn.nytimes.com/asia-pacific/20170809/north-korea-un-sanctions-nuclear-missile-united-nations/en-us/
[vi] https://news.yahoo.com/trump-isis-syria-abu-bakr-al-baghdadi
[vii] https://news.yahoo.com/countdown-death-trump-details-soleimanis-end-
[viii] https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/lev-parnas-and-igor-fruman-charged-conspiring-violate-straw-and-foreign-donor-bans
[ix] https://news.yahoo.com/report-recording-links-trump-ukraine-
[x] https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a30530169/lev-parnas-texts-robert-hyde-marie-yovanovitch/
[xi] https://www.rawstory.com/2020/01/did-trump-know-robert-hyde-was-stalking-ambassador-to-ukraine-marie-yovanovitch/
[xii] https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-impeachment-inquiry/texts-suggest-robert-hyde-passed-along-details-about-yovanovitch-movements-n1118226
[xiii] https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/trump-supporter-europe-sues-robert-hyde-defamation-n1122371
[xiv] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/nov/15/trump-impeachment-inquiry-marie-yovanovitch
[xv] https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/01/trump-robert-hyde-stalk-ambassador-marie-yovanovitch.html
