During deposition, official says he made several efforts to advocate for Marie Yovanovitch

A top U.S. diplomat told impeachment investigators Saturday that he tried to garner support for Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, among State Department officials earlier this year, but his efforts were unsuccessful, The New York Times reported. 

Philip Reeker, the acting assistant secretary of state in charge of European and Eurasian Affairs, testified privately Saturday that this spring, he pressed both David Hale, the third-ranking State Department official, and T. Ulrich Brechbuhl, the counselor to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, to support Yovanovitch. 

But officials declined to publicly support the former ambassador at the time. Yovanovitch was recalled from her position in May after months of facing accusations by critics, including President Trump and his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani. She was told in that month, after she was removed from her position, that she had done nothing wrong, but she was not trusted by the president, the New York Times reported. 

Yovanovitch testified earlier this month that she was also dismissed after insisting that Giuliani’s requests for investigations go through official channels. She declined to do “all this offline, personal, informal stuff,” an unnamed former diplomat told the Associated Press earlier this year.  

Ten Democratic Senators on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee wrote to Secretary Mike Pompeo earlier this month seeking answers on Yovanovitch’s removal, accusing Pompeo of remaining quiet as a “smear campaign” attacked the former official. 

Reeker, whose testimony was subpoenaed by House Democrats, said he also supported another unsuccessful effort by a senior State Department diplomat, Michael McKinley, to secure a public statement supporting Yovanovitch, the New York Times reported.

McKinley told congressional investigators earlier this month that he resigned as a senior advisor to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo due in part to the department’s failure to support Yovanovitch. 

Lawmakers told the Times that Reeker kept meticulous records of text messages and emails that he referenced from a binder during his testimony. However, he appeared to have little information about President Trump’s attempts to pressure Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky – allegations at the heart of House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry. 

A whistleblower complaint filed earlier this year alleges that the President threatened to withhold hundreds of millions of dollars of military aid to Ukraine in exchange for an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden.  

In 2016, Biden pushed for the dismissal of a Ukrainian prosecutor who was accused of corruption. At the time, Hunter Biden was serving on the board of a Ukrainian natural gas company the prosecutor was reportedly investigating.  

“An honest assessment by both sides is that there were no aha moments for either side,” Representative Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), said during a break in the Saturday testimony.

But Democratic Rep. Stephen Lynch (Mass.) said Reeker’s testimony provided further evidence of presidential misconduct in his connections with Ukraine.

“He is corroborating previous witnesses and their testimony. So it’s helpful in that respect,” Lynch said. “I think it’s fair to say it’s a much richer reservoir of information than we originally expected.”