Ousted ambassador to Ukraine sees Pete Sessions as part of smear campaign

WASHINGTON – The ousted U.S. ambassador to Ukraine told lawmakers that she was shocked to learn the extent of the smear campaign against her, including efforts to oust her by Pete Sessions, a Dallas congressman and member of the House GOP leadership at the time.

Marie Yovanovitch also testified that she suspected Ukraine’s former chief prosecutor, Yuri Lutsenko, was behind the plot.

House investigators released a 317-page transcript of her Oct. 11 deposition on Monday. Sessions’ name comes up repeatedly, with Democrats apparently trying to establish how enmeshed he became in the Ukraine scandal.

Lutsenko is a central figure in the scandal that has triggered impeachment proceedings against President Donald.

The night before Yovanovitch’s deposition, Soviet-born businessmen Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman were arrested at Dulles Airport. They had one-way tickets out of the country, but were scheduled to testify later that week before the impeachment committees.

Federal prosecutors in New York accused the men of illegally funneling foreign money into U.S. campaigns. They had helped Giuliani prod Ukraine to investigate the Joe Biden, the former vice president and Democratic front-runner to face Trump in 2020.

The indictment alleged that they committed to raising $20,000 for Sessions around the time they had enlisted his assistance “in causing the U.S. government to remove or recall the then-U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine.”

“They sought political influence not only to advance their own financial interests, but to advance the political interests of at least one foreign official ⁠— a Ukrainian government official who sought the dismissal of the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine,” Geoffrey Berman, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said at a news conference that morning.

Sessions has denied any wrongdoing, has not been accused of a crime, and has said that he is providing documents prosecutors requested under subpoena.

The indictment doesn’t mention him by name, referring instead to “congressman-1.”

On May 9, 2018, Sessions — then chairman of the powerful House Rules Committee, which controls how bills are debated and amended — wrote Secretary of State Mike Pompeo asking him to remove Yovanovitch from her post as the top U.S. diplomat in Kyiv.

The same day, Parnas posted photos on Facebook in which he is shown at the Capitol, posing with Sessions.

Sessions lost his seat to freshman Democrat Colin Allred of Dallas a year ago, and recently announced a comeback bid in Waco for the seat being vacated by GOP Rep. Bill Flores of Bryan.

After the arrests of Parnas and Fruman, Sessions said he wanted Yovanovitch fired because “several congressional colleagues” told him that she “was disparaging President Trump.”

He has declined to identify anyone who told him that.

“It was providing information that was based upon firsthand knowledge and information. … She was very much against the administration, did not represent them and spoke publicly against the administration.”

Lutsenko’s three-year tenure as Ukraine’s prosecutor general, mostly under the previous government, ended in August. Yovanovitch had resisted Giuliani’s push for Ukraine to dig up dirt on Biden.

At her closed-door deposition, Yovanovitch pointed at Lutsenko as the Ukrainian official who likely directed the effort to get her fired, as outlined in the indictment.

Trump called her “bad news” in a July 25 call with Ukraine’s new president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy — the call that triggered the impeachment inquiry.

At the White House, Trump shrugged off the idea that supporters tried to discredit her and push her out, saying: “I really don’t know her … But if you look at the transcripts, the president of Ukraine was not a fan of hers either.”

Yovanovitch, a career diplomat rather than a political appointee, told House investigators she felt shocked and threatened when she saw the comment.

During her deposition, Nicolas Mitchell, senior investigative counsel for the House intelligence committee, asked Yovanovitch about passages in the indictment that draw a link between Parnas and Fruman promising to raise funds for Sessions — referred to as “congressman 1” — and their effort to enlist his aid in getting Yovanovitch fired as U.S. ambassador in Kyiv.

“At and around the same time PARNAS and FRUMAN committed to raising those funds for Congressman-1, PARNAS met with Congressman-1 and sought Congressman-1′ s assistance in causing the U.S. Government to remove or recall the then- U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine…. PARNAS’ efforts to remove the Ambassador were conducted, at least in part, at the request of one or more Ukrainian government officials.”

“Do you know who those one or more Ukrainian Government officials are?” Mitchell asked.

“No,” she testified.

“What was your reaction when you first saw these allegations concerning you in this indictment?” he asked.

“Again, I mean, just feel shock,” she testified.

Asked if she had “any reason to believe that the Ukrainian Government officials referenced here could involve Mr. Lutsenko” — she replied: “I think that would be a good guess.”

As for Sessions’ role, Democrats appeared eager to keep his name in the narrative.

As Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, D-N.Y., put it to Yovanovitch at one point, “You were in the way, at least in the minds of Mr. Giuliani and Mr. Trump and Mr. Parnas and Mr. Fruman. You were an obstacle, it seems, to President Trump’s political interests and the financial interests of Mr. Giuliani’s now-indicted associates.”

“They got a story in The Hill newspaper about you,” he said. “They fired up Sean Hannity. They got a Republican Congressman, Pete Sessions, to write a letter criticizing you. They made a bunch of apparently illegal campaign contributions … all related to … the desire to get you fired.”

“That appears to be the case,” she said.