President Barack Obama appointed Marie Yovanovitch as ambassador to Ukraine in 2016.  During today’s impeachment inquiry hearings, Yovanovitch defended former Vice-President Biden and his handling of the removal of the former Ukraine Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin.  At the time Biden pushed for the firing, Shokin had plans to question Hunter Biden.  Hunter Biden was on the board of Ukrainian national gas company Burisma.  Hunter was being paid $50,000 per month to sit on the Burisma board even though he had no natural gas or energy experience on his resume.  In fact, the only information on Hunter’s resume that Burisma could have found attractive was his last name.

 While visiting Kiev in December 2015, Vice President Joe Biden threatened Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko that if he did not fire Shokin, the United States would not issue $1 billion in loan guarantees. Here is how Vice President Joe Biden recalled the conversation…

 I remember going over and convincing our team, others, to convince that we should be providing for loan guarantees. And I went over, I guess, the 12th, 13th time to Kiev. And I was supposed to announce that there was another billion-dollar loan guarantee. And I had gotten a commitment from Poroshenko and from Yatsenyuk that they would take action against the state prosecutor. And they didn’t.

 So they said they had—they were walking out to a press conference. I said, nah, I’m not going to—or, we’re not going to give you the billion dollars. They said, you have no authority. You’re not the president. The president said—I said, call him. I said, I’m telling you, you’re not getting the billion dollars. I said, you’re not getting the billion. I’m going to be leaving here in, I think it was about six hours. I looked at them and said: I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money. Well, son of a bitch. He got fired. And they put in place someone who was solid at the time.

 Yovanovitch claims that then Vice President Biden never discussed Burisma with her.  She also says she never met Hunter Biden.  Yet Yovanovitch did admit that in preparation for her senate confirmation hearing to become Ambassador to Ukraine, the Obama Administration’s State Department held a mock hearing.  One of the questions Yovanovitch testified she was prepared for was centered on Hunter Biden being on the board of directors of Burisma.

An ambassador typically serves his or her post for three years. Yovanovitch was in her third year as ambassador when President Trump decided he wanted to recall her from her post. She testified today that Ukraine corruption was prevalent.  The truth is that corruption runs rampant in the Ukraine and it has for years.  Her three years’ in the Ukraine did not reduce corruption as the democrats would like the public to believe.  While her decades of service are commendable, Yovanovitch failed to achieve the goals of the United States to substantially reduce corruption in Ukraine. She did not achieve the administration’s objections.  She failed in this regard. 

 In a March 5, 2019 speech at the Ukrainian Crisis Media Center Yovanovitch said of the long Ukrainian fight against corruption, “It is increasingly clear that Ukraine’s once-in-a-generation opportunity for change, for which such a high price was paid five years ago on the Maidan, has not yet resulted in the anti-corruption or rule of law reforms that Ukrainians expect or deserve.” 

 Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine also expressed the need to prevent vote buying in elections and to investigate corruption.  This was in her third year at her post.  So by her own admission, Ukraine still has a major corruption problem, in spite of her efforts. 

 When the democrats bemoan the so-called smear campaign of Yovanovitch, they do so as if Yovanovitch was a huge success in the Ukraine.  She was not.  For as long as business oligarchs control the money and media in Ukraine, corruption will remain.  If a non-politician such as Donald Trump decides that career state department methodologies have failed to produce the results his administration’s prioritizes in the Ukraine, the president would be derelict to not shake things up and attack the problems in a different direction.  This is the nature of the business and Yovanovitch knows it.

 The Kyiv Post said of Yovanovitch near the end of her term…

 It was the first blunt comment by Yovanovitch since she was sworn in as ambassador in August 2016 and the harshest criticism of Ukraine’s government by its Western allies in many months. The change in Yovanovitch’s usually restrained manner coincides with the approach of her expected leave. U.S. ambassadors’ terms usually last three years. Yovanovitch’s third year is close to an end.

Republicans on the impeachment inquiry panel do not fully understand why Yovanovitch is a witness.  She testified that she is unaware of any crime committed by President Trump.  She has no firsthand knowledge of the President taking a bribe.  What the entire hearing has morphed into is an empathy feast for Yovanovitch for being the victim of the President’s harsh words.  Democrats will end the day feeling even more convinced that Trump is rotten to the core, and republicans will continue to believe that Trump, even with his warts, is the victim of a witch hunt worthy of repelling.