Donald Trump’s ‘intimidating’ attack on impeachment witness Marie Yovanovitch during testimony
- ‘Everywhere [she] went turned bad,’ president tweets, lashing out at ousted US ambassador
- House Intelligence Committee chairman calls outburst ‘witness intimidation in real time’, but does not say whether it is an impeachable offence
A US ambassador ousted by Donald Trump told a riveting impeachment hearing on Friday she felt intimidated by the president as he launched an extraordinary, real-time attack midway through her testimony to Congress.
Marie Yovanovitch was recounting to lawmakers how she was abruptly pulled from Ukraine after what she calls a smear campaign, when the president lashed out at the highly-regarded career diplomat, tweeting that “everywhere [she] went turned bad.”
Asked on live television what effect Trump’s tweet might have on her and other witnesses, Yovanovitch told the panel: “It’s very intimidating.”
“I can’t speak to what the president is trying to do but I think the effect is to be intimidating,” she said.
Trump’s outburst highlighted the intensity of the public hearings on Capitol Hill, that seek to establish whether the president abused the power of his office for personal political gain in his dealings with Ukraine.