heartbeat ♪ ♪ hmm hmm, yeah ♪ this is "nightline." tonight shatargeted by tweets. accusations of witness intimidation. the fired ambassador to ukraine stu stunned at her dismissal. alleging a smear campaign. then and now. >> do you feel threatened? >> i do. >> and now the not-so-secret witness, and what happened behind closed doors tonight. plus, "star wars" plus. the >> it is alluded to in the original films that i grew up

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twitter from president trump. at the second day of televised impeachment hearing, the former u.s. ambassador to ukraine detailing what she calls a smear campaign. abc's david wright on impeachment and intimidation. >> reporter: by 8:30 this morning, it was clear this would be standing room only. the long line of spectators in the marble corridor seemed to stretch back forever. the house impeachment showdown has instantly become "the" marquee event in washington. start time, 9:00 a.m. sharp. the battle lines drawn. >> mr. chair mman, i want you t release the full transcript of the depositions. >> this is historic, and i think everyone in that hearing room feels the gravity of history on them. >> reporter: today's witness, one of the most senior diplomats, marie yovanovitch. >> do you swear or affirm --

>> reporter: president trump abruptly recalled her last spring. she testified today she was kneecapped through a smear campaign led by a corrupt ukrainian prosecutor and president trump as lawyer, rudy giuliani. >> i do not understand mr. giuliani's motives for attacking me, nor can i offer an opinion on whether he believed the allegations he's read about me. clearly no one at the state department did. >> reporter: she said the order to leave ukraine came in a 1:00 a.m. phone call in late april. she was told to get on the next plane back to washington. >> how did that make you feel? >> terrible, honestly. i mean, after 33 years of service to our country, it was s terrible. it's not the way i wanted my career to end. >> in your 33 years as a foreign service officer, have you ever heard of a president of the united states recalling another ambassador without cause based on allegations that the state department itself new

false? >> no. >> reporter: in his july 25th phone call with president zelinsky, the president bad mouthed yovanovitch, calling her "bad news." >> i was shocked and absolutely devastated, frankly. >> what do you mean by devastated? >> a person who saw me actually reading the transcript said the color drained from my face. i think i even had a physical reaction. i think, you know, even now words kind of fail me. >> reporter: according to the call summary, trump then confided she's going to go through some things. >> she's going to go through some things. didn't sound threat. >> did you feel threatened? >> i did. >> how so? >> i didn't know exactly. it's not, you know, a very precise phrase, but i think it didn't feel like i was, i really

don't know how to answer the question any further except to say that it kind of felt like a vague threat. >> reporter: within minutes of yovanovitch's testimony about being smeared -- >> as we sit here testifying, the president is attacking you on twitter. >> reporter: the president lashed out in real time from the white house. >> i'll read part of one of his tweets. everywhere marie yovanovitch went turned bad. she started off in somalia, how did that go? what would you like to respond to the president's attack that everywhere you went turned bad? >> i, i mean i, i don't think i have such powers. i'm not in mogadishu, somalia and other places. i actually think that where i've served over the years i and others have demonstrably made things better. >> anytime women challenge the president of the united states, it seems to strike a nerve in

him and get a reaction that's a bit more visceral. >> and now the president in real time is attacking you. what effect do you think that has on other witnesses' willingness to come forward and expose wrongdoing? >> it's very intimidating. >> designed to intimidate, is it not? >> i mean, i can't speak to what the president is trying to do, but i think the effect is to be intimidating. >> well, i want to let you know, ambassador, that some of us here take witness intimidation very, very seriously. >>ive abeen watching today for the first time. >> reporter: a few hours later, the president brushed off any suggestion of witness tampering. >> sir, do you believe the words could be intimidating in. >> i don't think so at all? >> the question is, does this get lumped into a broader issue of impeachment on witness intimidation? i think it's unlikely, but you never know. and you certainly heard congressman schiff explaining that's a possibility.

>> reporter: in kiev, watching the testimony unfold as well, daria, an anticorruption activist who worked closely with yovanovitch when she was stationed there. >> she was our true supporter and friend. she was very professional diplomat. very soft-spoken. and she was very much committed to the success of ukraine as a democratic control of law. >> reporter: she says it's clear why she was pushed out. >> she was hated by people who are kooks. she was hate td by some people the ukrainian government whom she pressed to deliver reforms in appointment corruption. >> and right in the middle of marie yovanovitch's testimony. >> we're going to take a brief recess. >> that's when a few blocks away we get the verdict on the roger stone case. the kind of thing that only

>> reporter: president trump's long-time friend and political operative, ronl irstoger stone convicted of lying to congress and witness tampering. >> the same committee holding a hearing today is the one where roger stone has been convicted for lying to or obstructing. >> reporter: stone could face as much as 50 years in prison. >> there's no question that the president is empowered to pardon roger stone on any or all of the charges. >> reporter: then late in the day behind closed doors, the intelligence committee heard from david holmes, an embassy staff member who says he overheard president trump on the phone with ambassador gordon sondland in kiev. according to holmes' opening statement obtained by cnn, sondland agreed the president did not give an s about ukraine and said that the president only cares about, quote, big stuff, big stuff that benefits the president, like the biden investigation. >> what's significance there?

>> this new information is a bombshell. the fuse was lit on wednesday when ambassador taylor mentioned that this witness overheard this conversation first hand. and today you saw the fuse and the bomb go off. now that we have another witness coming forward admitting that they overheard the president's actual voice, it takes away the republicans' argument that this is all just hearsay. >> in my line of work, perhaps in your line of work as well, all we have is our reputation. and so this has been a very painful period. >> how has it affected your family? >> i really don't want to get into that. thank you for asking me. >> reporter: today's hearing was at times emotional, especially over the shabby >> it wasn't your preference to be the victim of a smear complain, was it? >> no. >> it wasn't your preference to be defamed by the president of the united states, including today, was it? >> no. >> it's not the end of a

hallmark movie. it's the end of a really bad reality tv show, brought to you by someone who knows a lot about that. >> reporter: the main republican push back, that her testimony is not relevant to impeachment. >> do you have any information regarding the president of the united states accepting inany bribes? >> no. >> do you have any information regarding any criminal activity that the president of the united states has been involved with at all? >> no. >> reporter: and that the president is entitled to change ambassadors if he likes. >> i obviously don't dispute that the president has the right to, to withdraw an ambassador at any time. for any reason. but what i do wonder is why it was necessary to smear my reputation falsely. >> i wasn't asking you about that, but thank you very much, ma'am. >> we've had compelling

testimony this week of people with real credibility and authority that really, you know, pulls at your patriotic heartstrings of these people going to hardship places and fighting for our democracy. and it's those people against donald trump. >> these are strong, important people who are doing important jobs. and even if you don't agree with what they're doing -- >> she didn't deserve this. >> she doesn't deserve this. >> reporter: today's hearing made that point loud and clear. the bigger question remains. does the president deserve to be impeached? i'm david wright for "nightline" in washington. up next, journeying through the galaxies with the new "star wars" series, the mandalorian. ♪ things are getting clearer, yeah i feel free ♪ ♪ to bare my skin ♪ yeah that's all me.

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as one "star wars" saga approaches the end, another warrior arises in the galaxy, welcome "the >> i wasn't drawn as a storyteller to very big canvas big screen blockbuster "star wars." i was drawn to a few characters making it through the world. >> reporter: writer, director, producer, john fauf rn favreau,

chronicle of bounty hunter's contentious adventures across planet scapes. >> bounty hunting is a complicated profession. >> reporter: it is two episodes deep on the streaming service disney plus. for people who might not know, what is a mandalorian? >> mandalorian is alluded to in the characters i grew up with, there was a character named boba fett. he wore mandalorian armor. he didn't do much in the film. >> reporter: droids are mentioned and more. episode one has already served up this omg reveal. spoiler alert, hailed on social media as "baby yoda." meanwhile, favreau's working with a title character who calls back influences on george lucas

from half a century ago. >> i like the image of "the mandalorian," because it hearkened back to the westerns and samurai films that affected lucas. like clint eastwood and "a man with no name." that's a great, mysterious character to see the world through. >> you get to put this helmet on and let your imagination run wild. it's strangely liberating to be honest with you. >> reporter: as played by pedro pascal, best known from "game of thrones," "the mandalorian" is for now -- >> got my heartfelt gratitude. >> reporter: a lead of few words and no visible eyes. >> i love his mystery. it isn't just about not knowing who he is or where he's from, but also what, what, how he relates to the world, how he has, how he hides himself within the armor. >> we've seen silhouettes.

a lot of back lighting. a lot of humanity and civilization on the edge of the wilderness, good versus evil. you put those together with the right music and camera work and story, it all of a sudden resonates very deeply. >> reporter: for a decade now, no film maker has navigated as successfully as favreau, at the helm of a host of high-profile, high pressure projects that have found favor with audiences. marvel with the iron man films, and now lucasfilms with the luc mandalorian. how have you been able to flourish with these big entities. >> i think because when i engage with those properties they're ones that i feel passionately about, and i have a take on. and i feel a personal connection and responsibility to. >> and this is where we filmed a scene from iron man ii,

actually. >> reporter: right here? even outside his office in an out of the way part of los angeles, favreau can readily find plenty of his own cinematic history. >> we snowed it in and did some art direction. there was a doorway over there that we had mickey rourke getting tickets to the races. this is where the marvel stuff was before they moved to atlanta. >> reporter: even as he pumps the brakes on feature films, the ri rise of skywalker is to be released next month. >> that's where we build all of our "star wars" gear. we have all the props available from us. because they keep everything documented and indexed. so we can order up storm trooper uniforms and aliens. >> reporter: first getting notice for writing "swingers." >> how long you guys going to wait to call your babies? >> reporter: later directing "elf." >> okay, people, santa's coming to town.

>> santa! oh, my god! >> reporter: favreau also puts heart into his many blockbusters. if i want to spot you in those movies, what am i looking for? >> there seem to be certain things that recur, a certain sense of sadness and loss and loneliness that then a sense of community and love and togetherness takes over. >> reporter: where do you thin that's from? >> you know, i think it comes from when you're young, and you feel that way. ive ahad lo ive' had loss early in life. >> reporter: you were 12 years old when your mother. >> my mother passed away. that was hitting at the time i was watching those films. and there's nothing like a movie or story to help you feel that there's a path to all of this that makes sense. i'm drawn to material that reenforces that. >> reporter: favreau's sensibilities finding their way into "the mandalorian" on disney

plus, which survived first-day glitches to reap more than 10 million subscribers. waltz disn walt disney is the parent company of lucasfilm, disney plus and abc news. >> we get to have cliff-hanger adventures, things that feel more in tune with what influenced george in making "star wars." we've grown-up with the 40 years of the saga. the pressure is more to the audience, that i want to make sure i'm throwing a good party for them. >> reporter: for "nightline," i'm chris connelly in los angeles. up next, dance dads. the little ballerinas and their perfect father figures. ♪ we switched to tide purclean, ♪ because it's made with plants.♪ ♪ we switched to tide purclean,♪ ♪ it gets stains out of his pants.♪ ♪ tide purclean, they don't put phosphates in. ♪ ♪ no dyes or chlorine ♪ it's gentle on my skin.

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six, seven eight! you're watching the dance of a lifetime. dads and their daughters performing ballet at a philadelphia studio. the video of the adorable partners melting hearts across the internet. also stepping in, other friends and family. the founder of the studio

offering a heartwarming opportunity after seeing so many dads involved in their daughters' love of dance. >> hands down! >> which gives new meaning to a father-daughter dance. that's "nightline." you can always catch our full episodes on hulu. thanks for staying up with us. have a great weekend, america.

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