marie yovanovitch. for the last 33 years, it has been my great honor to serve the american people as a foreign service officer. over six administrations. four republican and two democratic. i have served in seven different countries, five of them hardship posts and was appointed to serve as an ambassador three times, twice by a republican president and once by a democrat. throughout my career i have stayed true to the oath that foreign officers take and observe every day, that i will support and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and that i will bear true faith and allegiance to the same. like all foreign service officers, i have understood that oath as a commitment to serve on a strictly nonpartisan basis, to advance the foreign policy determined by the incumbent president and to work at all times to strengthen our national security and promote our national interests. ukraine is a sovereign country whose borders are in violet and whose people have th

ambassador marie yovanovitch. those guys making illegal campaign donations and meeting with that congressman were also the guys reportedly arranging meetings with ukrainian officials for rudy giuliani, again to try to put together this scheme where the ukrainian government would help trump by launching basically bogus investigations into democrats, specifically joe biden. importantly they specifically sought from ukraine a public announcement of those investigations into joe biden to make sure that they could cast maximum aspersions on biden and the democrats ahead of the 2020 election. so there's a couple parts of the story that i think are still developing tonight that i'm super interested in. one is this report from reporter elaina plott at the atlantic magazine. you see the title there, the mystery of rudy giuliani's vienna trip. now, you might have seen the news today about these arrests that when these guys who had been working with rudy giuliani on the ukraine scheme, his supposed clients, when they were ar

her name is marie yovanovitch. now she's a career diplomat, has multiple foreign postings, and she's also the former u.s. ambassador to ukraine. she's the one and you may have sort of seen this when the call came out, right, she's the one the president kind of threatened infamously in the call with the ukrainian president. remember that part? it's very weird and kind of dproesz, frankly. donald trump is talking about how bad his ambassador is to ukraine and he says she's going to go through some things. she already lost her job earlier this year, she was recalled as u.s. ambassador noo ukraine and basically it appears because she kind of stood in the way of this corrupt shadow foreign policy that the president and his bag man rudy giuliani had cooked up. so she was their obstacle to their scheme in having a foreign government manufacture dirt on a political rival. so she was cept back to washington, d.c. very abruptly. in fact, i think you can tell the whole story of this scandal and indeed the whole trump era as a

ambassador marie yovanovitch is credible and says that no one tried to limit her testimony. i think that's important here because when we saw marie yovanovitch making her way here to the house side earlier this morning, she was flanked by members of her outside legal team. she was patient enough with me when i tried to pepper her with questions, she chose not to answer but she did not say whether or not she was appearing here with the express support of the state department, of the trump administration. it's not clear if there's a state department attorney in the room. i think based on the guidance we're getting from a couple of the members who have left is that there aren't, that she is appearing here on her own volition and is speaking forthrightly and candidly about her experience. so her appearance here is a real breakthrough for house democrats. she was supposed to be the first witness to appear here to be deposed but that was delayed after secretary of state mike pompeo said he didn't think house democrats could compel the appearance of any state department employee wi

ambassador to ukraine, marie yovanovitch. she was pulled out of the embassy, apparently with the consent of secretary of state mike pompeo in the spring of this year. ambassador yovanovitch testified on friday that she was told to get out of ukraine, quote, on the next plane. in her opening statement before her nine-hour deposition on friday, she spelled out how the number two official in the state department told her it was on the president's orders that she was being recalled from her ambassadorship, even though she was told she had done nothing wrong. if that in fact was the conclusion of the state department, that she had done nothing wrong and was being pulled out anyway just because the president wanted her out, it is all the more remarkable that the secretary of state mike pompeo we now know was sitting there on the call between president trump and president zelensky of ukraine when president trump apropos of nothing brought up the u.s. ambassador to ukraine and told the ukrainian president that she was, in his words, b

but marie yovanovitch did not hold back today. she said under president trump, the state department -- these are her words -- has been attacked and hollowed out from within. >> she's been testifying for hours and hours. alex, thank you very much. >>> also tonight a top impeachment investor said the probe is moving forward with urgency and new witness testimony is in the works. let's go to manu raju up on capitol hill. what are you hearing about the impeachment inquiry? >> reporter: adam schiff told his members in a letter and a private phone call today that the investigation is moving ahead. he claimed it was a sense of urgency to get the investigation done. he also made clear it'll be more witnesses coming in beyond the ones announced for next week. suggesting also more subpoenas could be coming as well. we are expecting, after today's hearing, which is still ongoing, the big hearing next week with gordon sondland, the u.s. ambassador to the european union, that is expected to come despite the state department trying to block his

a key witness former ambassador marie yovanovitch testifying on capitol hill after she was subpoenaedn saying this afternoon that subpoena was issued after the white house and state department directed yovanovitch not to appear before congress. yovanovitch was the u.s. ambassador to ukraine but she was removed from her position in may over what she called today unfounded and false claims. she said she was told by the deputy secretary of state that there had been a, quote, concerted campaign against me and that the department had been under pressure from the president to remove me since the summer of 2018, unquote. let's discuss. jen, you were the former spokesperson for the state department during the obama years. you know ambassador yovanovitch. tell us about her. is she a partisan democrat? is she not professional? >> no. i worked alongside her for two and a half years in a senior role in the european bureau when i was there. i was a visitor as a political pointy, most are civil service ants and many republican and democratic presidents she is served and i would have no idea politic

ambassador to ukraine, marie yovanovitch, could trump be under investigation as well? that's where we start today with some of our favorite reporters and friends. from the "new york times" washington correspondent mike schmidt, former assistant director for counter intelligence at the fbi, frank figliuzzi. with us at the table paul butler, former federal prosecutor and former managing editor for "time" magazine. i pose that question to you to start. >> well, it's clear through the indictment out of the southern district of new york that there are persons known and unknown. when you hear persons known that, means that the government knows there is other individuals and that they're likely under investigation. is one of those individuals rudy giuliani? it would appear through multiple media reporting that it indeed is. and i can tell you from the level of detail, nicole, that you see in the charging document against rudy's two associates, when you see quotes attributed, for example, to foreign national number one, when you see specificity to time and place, you need to r

so much so that after marie yovanovitch was fired the top u.s.that he thought there was a player linkage between u.s. aid, u.s. military aid to ukraine and getting investigations on the biden research. the basic allocation by the whistle-blower seems to me have been largely cooperated. now, does that rise to the level of impeachment? does that rise to the level of removal? folks have to decide but the basic allocation has been largely confirmed. >> shepard: tomorrow is a really big day. tomorrow -- we are at the z and after resounding victory over vanderbilt, now, it is time to beat the zoo and while doing so, we will say happy birthday, happy birthday chris wallace. >> you know that tomorrow, october 12th i will forward everybody about this fact and i'm quite bitter about it. >> shepard: i'm bitter already. >> october 12th is columbus day and we did not use to celebrate some random monday but on a day columbus discovered america. >> and today october 12th but what was columbus' first name? >> shepard: christopher. >> bingo. >> shepard: wow, and

former ambassador to ukraine marie yovanovitch facing question about her time in that post and the pressure that president trump placed on ukraine to investigate his political rival, and also facing questions about the circumstances surrounding her abrupt departure from the post earlier this year. earlier this year the president did unexpectedly remove yovanovitch from her position. it followed complaints from the president's personal attorney, rudy giuliani. and we now know he had the help of two associates with ties to ukraine. two associates arrested and in court yesterday for campaign finance violations. let's get to all of this. let us start on capitol hill where the center of the universe is at the moment. manu raju is there. so manu, the former ambassador is behind closed doors right now. what are you hearing? what is expected today? >> well, there are going to be a lot of questions about the circumstances of her dismissal from her post earlier this spring. we do know that the president had bad mouthed her to the president of ukraine, zelensky in that rough transcript that was releas

fiona hill today, you heard from manu, had high praise for the ousted ambassador to ukraine marie yovanovitch. what picture in addition to what you're suggesting are you seeing emerge from her and potentially other witnesses? >> again, wolf, i found ambassador yovanovitch to be incredibly believable and she served hur countrimey and i did hear anything that contradicted the believe i had of her and nobody came out of marie yovanovitch testimony saying she was anything but credible. this is a scheme by rudy giuliani and the president of the united states and the rudy giuliani indicted associates to undermine u.s. policy with ukraine to back channel their only policy to essentially get deals to benefit themselves and to help the president and his campaign. >> you're scheduled to hear from another witness tomorrow, george kent who served at the u.s. ambassador in ukraine under both the obama and trump administration. a former state department deputy assistance secretary. what do you hope to learn from him? >> again, we're just trying to make sure that everything here adds up and frankly, wolf, w

ambassador, marie yovanovitch, there as well.ly they both agreed what rudy giuliani wanted to do, namely pressure the ukrainian government into digging up dirt on the president's potential political rival in the 2020 election was a bad idea. >> yeah, absolutely. look, i always defended the president's right to have the advisers that he or she wants to govern, but this is not a case of a president looking at this particular adviser, saying you're not doing what i would like you to do to govern, this is a case of looking at someone that's a career foreign service officer that has an outstanding reputation by all accounts, has done a fantastic job, looking at that person, saying you're not getting on board with what i'm trying to accomplish. look, i think between the testimony that she will give, and testimony kurt volker gave today, the picture is coming into focus with regard to what exactly the president was trying to do. and if we look at the historical ones, look at 2016, it is clear that if the intelligence community were to f

at any minute the former ambassador to ukraine marie yovanovitch set to arrive on capitol hill. she's set to testify behind closed doors as part of the impeachment inquiry. she's was forced out of the post earlier pie the trump administration and now in his now infamous call to the ukrainian president president trump called her bad news. she has been the target subsequently of unfounded attacks by rudy giuliani and conservative allies as having an anti-trump bias. >> those are live pictures on the entrance to capitol hill. we're also following new developments about the president's personal lawyer and his two close associates who were arrested holding one way tickets out of the country. the two soviet born men seen in the picture there smiling arrested just before boarding a plane to europe. they were indicted on charges of illegally funneling foreign money into donations for republican campaigns. the two are also key figures in jew giuliani's efforts to dig up dirt on trump's political rival joe biden. trump says he doesn't know the two men, but there are pictures like this one

ambassador to ukraine, marie yovanovitch, a respected diplomat of many decades, as of right now expected to arrive on capitol hill at any moment. but will she be blocked like the eu ambassador was at the last minute. >> her testimony could be intriguing based on how she was treated by thes who. forced from her post early, then attacked by rudy giuliani and his allies and the president for an alleged trump bias. we'll see if she's going to talk. we're also following new developments about the president's personal lawyer and his two close associates who were arrested holding one-way tickets out of the country. two soviet-born men arrested just before boarding a plane to europe were indicted on charges of illegally funneling money into donations to republican campaigns. those two are central figures also in rudy giuliani's efforts to dig up dirt on president trump's political rival joe biden. >> their tickets to europe were one-way tickets. now congress wants to talk to them. the president denies knowing them, despite pictures with him and his son that say otherwise. so much to get to. let'

congressman last year for help in ousting marie yovanovitch. cbs face the nation host set the arrest this week are significant. >>> this was a shadow foreign licy of sorts being run by the president personal attorney. the connection of these two individuals is significant in that the criminal element exists. as you said they were arrested. they were trying to the country. >>> the two men also helped arrange meetings in ukraine for giuliani. ever seen done with him at trump's hotel hours before they were arrested. >>> a mailing to those giuliani associates was in federal court in san francisco. federal prosecutors say andre has been a source of foreign cash for political campaigns in min gereedm iruatiaden th ncnatiluonal. $1 s they said the money was dona to campaigns in both new york and nevada. he was ordered released on $1 million bond. he had to surrender his u.s. and ukrainian passports. he is scheduled to appear in court in new york city next thursday. >>> california's tough gun laws are getting in the even tougher. the sweeping reforms a

we expect marie yovanovitch sometime in the next hour for a closed door transcribed interview. people get very fixated whether the interviews are under oath or not. if they lie or mislead investigators the same penalties attach. she is a controversial figure. she was pulled back from her posting in ukraine two months ahead of schedule. those close to her say it was because she was not playing ball with rudy giuliani's investigation but also another side to the story. yesterday in a separate development former republican congressman pete sessions put out a statement and he

this is reportedly all done at the request of marie yovanovitch herself. joining me now, the man who first uncovered this, tom fitton. president of judicial watch. he is here with us now. what is going on, what have you uncovered, what do we know? >> we understand she directed a list of people, including you, donald trump jr., the president lawyer, rudy giuliani. >> laura: i feel so special. >> sean hannity, lou dobbs. >> laura: okay come all the cool kids. >> she wanted to know, the staff wanted to know, the social media postings of what you were saying about biden, george soros, rudy giuliani, and her. >> laura: why so defensive? >> this supposedly happened back in march when moore started happening about whether she was a never-trumper, whether she was improperly protecting -- >> laura: people have to understand, this is a u.s. investor to the ukraine at the state department, and you have it on solid gold authority, tommy? >> is sure is. >> laura: i completely trust, but i want to make sure, that she was ordering or requesting that we be tracked. who di

you have interviewed marie yovanovitch and know her quite well, talk me through what has happened over known the ambassador ever since she was appointed over two years ago, slightly over two yea rs two years ago, slightly over two years ago, and interviewed her on several occasions, and have always been struck by her diplomatic skill, by her dedication to herjob and by all accounts, she was very good and ernest diplomat. from the testimony we had today which i thought was very bracing in its sheer courage that she showed, unlike many of her colleagues, she felt —— fell prey to to the —— the shenanigans coming from the white house, specifically on the part of donald trump's personal private attorney, mr giuliani, to try to get some results, to get some pressure against mr trump's results, to get some pressure against mrtrump‘s main results, to get some pressure against mr trump's main political rival, mr biden, and pressure the ambassador into doing so when she did not go along with the scheme, they essentially got ukraine's former prosecutor to open war against the ambassador, and that

i think democrats will be very interested to see what marie yovanovitch has to say.entre of the impeachment enquiries which centre around president trump asking the ukrainian resin volodymy zele ns ky to asking the ukrainian resin volodymy zelensky to launch an investigation into his potential presidential rivaljoe biden —— joe into his potential presidential rivaljoe biden ——joe biden and his son hunter who had isthmus in the country. as part of that whole operation to push for an investigation into these unsubstantiated claims of corruption that mr trump is made and his personal attorney rudy giuliani has made, they were trying very hard to get the ukrainian authorities to look into all these are that included his personal lawyer, rudy giuliani and here at times was very critical of the former ukrainian ambassador. in fact, she says, i was incredulous that the us government chose to remove an ambassador based as best i could tell on unfounded and false claims by people with clearly questionable motives. you can take from what ms yovanovitch says, she is talking abo

marie yovanovitch has been talking to lawmakers behind closed doors for hours. telling them that president trump wanted her removed based on unfounded and false claims about her. that is according to a copy of her opening statement obtained by the "new york times." and the democratic chairman of three house committees says she's appearing before the committee saying they had to subpoena her after the white house and the state department told her not to testify. we'll talk about that and much more with the former obama national security adviser, former u.s. ambassador to the u.n., susan rice. and our correspondents and analysts are standing by. but first straight to capitol hill. our congressional correspondent sunlen serfaty is on the scene. >> reporter: this is certainly a significant moment in the house democrats' impeachment inquiry and the former ambassador to ukraine marie yovanovitch now appearing on capitol hill behind closed doors with lawmakers on those top three committees investigating president trump. now going on for six hours. and this all came tog

now that ambassador, marie yovanovitch, is scheduled to speak to congress in two hours. this is all coming together in one really crazy story. it's unclear whether the president will try to block his testimony this morning as he did earlier this week with another state department official. we're waiting for word on that every minute that passes. >> new details about the july 25th phone call between president trump and the ukrainian president and the quid pro quo allegations in the whistle-blower complaint or the request for a favor. "the washington post" reports at least four national security officials were so alarmed by that phone call, by the president's attempts to pressure the ukrainian president for political purposes that they raised concerns with the white house lawyer before and after the president's call. the post also says it was political appointees in the white house budget office who intervened to freeze that military aid to ukraine. just a lot to talk about. let's bring in susan glasser, staff writer for the new yorker and cnn global affairs analyst and da

ambassador to ukrai ukraine, marie yovanovitch. so we also asked, is sessions the target of any investigation? and a source actually refused to rule that out. saying, instead, the investigation has not reached any definitive conclusions. now we talked to a spokesman for the former congressman pete sessions. he says that he is cooperating with the u.s. attorney in new york who is handling this investigation. we'll be providing these documents, but jim and poppy, it's clear this investigation is moving full steam ahead. especially as it pertains to rudy giuliani because we reported last week that his financial dealings with these two men who were arrested last week are also under scrutiny. so a lot happening in the southern district of new york right now. guys? >> for sure. jess, thank you for the reporting. lots to talk about. all of these headlines. elie honig is there. federal and state prosecutor and molly ball, national political correspondent for "time." >> let me begin with you on where democrats are trying to get this informa

ambassador to ukraine, marie yovanovitch's opening statement. as she's deposed in front of members of three house committees, leading the impeachment inquiry. she was ousted by the state department. in that same opening statement, she laid out exactly how she thinks the president personally bothered department officials to remove her without any evidence of any wrongdoing. as her statement reads, finally after being asked by the department in early march to extend my tour until 2020, i was then abruptly told in late april to come back to washington from ukraine, on the next plane. you will understandably want to ask why my posting ended so suddenly. i wanted to learn that to and tried to find out. i met with the deputy secretary of state who informed me of curtailment of my term. he said the president had lost confidence in me, no longer wished me to serve as his ambassador. he added there had been a concerted campaign against me and the department had been under pressure from the president to remove me since the summer of 2018. he also said tha

that is ambassador marie yovanovitch, former ambassador to ukraine.ew york times" investigative reporter matthew rosenberg and republican strategist, doug hyde. we said this was a bad week for president trump. now he is under the cloud of impeachment. has anything that happened in the past 24 hours from a long list i went through, does that change the calculus for republicans, either voters or members of congress? >> i think it is starting to. we've seen in a lot of polling that the number of republicans willing to support an investigation of impeachment, not necessarily removal from office, but investigation, is starting to creep up. the first poll for a lot of republicans caused questions as to whether or not this is a trend or outlier. we're seeing more polls showing it is beginning of a trend. we'll see how long that continues. should be of real concern to the white house. it shows that a basis smaller than they thought, spells trouble moving into an election more about motivation than persuasion. >> seen time and time again how reliant president

talks about the former ambassador, marie yovanovitch, who testified last week. he says this, "as the interview began her ten page opening statement quickly leaked. democrats and marie yovanovitch got their side of the story out without any rebuttal from republicans." if they are afraid to say anything. >> the republicans are afraid i think that the democrats on the committee, on the intelligence committee, will do to them, or someone of them, what they did to devin nunes, which was they walked up a charge that he mishandled classified information or whatever, it was a baseless charge, but he had to step down from the committee, or felt he had to while there independency was done into that. i think they are afraid of that a little bit but this game is so kind of transparent, what's going on here. they hold the questioning session in secret. then the democrats leaked to the media whatever portions they think are advantageous to their side of the republicans are afraid to do the same thing. so that's how the game is being played. i frankly, shannon, don't think tha

ambassador to ukraine, marie yovanovitch. now he's testifying under subpoena. let's start with the latest on capitol hill with geoff bennett. from the white house, hans nicho nichols. jeff, i think one of the most stunning things we learned in the last 24 hours came from fiona hill's testimony, that john bolton was so worried about a rogue effort being run by rudy giuliani and others that he told hill to notify the chief lawyer for the nsc. as nbc has reported this was seen as a clear counterintelligence risk. how does kent's testimony right now play into that bigger picture? >> reporter: i'll explain it this way, chris. fiona hill offered house investigators an inside view as to what was happening in the white house as rudy giuliani set about his rogue operation as it's described, his influence campaign to do president trump's bidding. george kent offers the same house investigators an inside view of what was happening at the state department around that same time. as you mentioned, george kent is the state department official who is responsible for ukraine an

ambassador to ukraine, marie yovanovitch from talking voluntarily. today democrat subpoenaed her to testify behind closed doors. she testified, the presidents personal attorney rudy giuliani was badmouthing her. yovanovitch fired back in testimony obtained by fox that she told staff to ignore the president's orders, that's not true. she said i'm proud of my work, the u.s. embassy represented and advanced policies of the u.s. government as articulate first by the obama administration and then the trump administration. democrats trying to tie the president's decision to push her out of the post to their claims that the president should be impeached over efforts to get the ukrainians to strongly scrutinize former vice president joe biden. the president said he just wanted to look into corruption and a short time ago at a trade meeting with chinese officials, he was blunt again about saying he's not telling the chinese to investigate the biden family but he's not opposed to them investigating it either. watch. >> i have not brought up joe biden. china can

explain who marie yovanovitch is in that tale. and then take us through where she plays in today's indictments. >> well, she was the ambassador to kiev. and she had been removed, and there are some questions around why that happened. but i think we're sort of missing sort of the larger context here. giuliani was brought on by the president to help get rid of the mueller investigation and the investigation into michael cohen. >> it was to move public opinion in the president's favor. now what happened was that giuliani was fairly successful. nothing came of those. the president did fine. he was sort of off free. but what happens is, is that giuliani had continued to try and clear the president's name. and with that continued other efforts, which we are learning about in connection with this today that have really undermined the president. so while giuliani really helped him on one hand, on another he kind of dragged the president into another scandal. >> that may end up getting him impeached. i mean, pull that thread a little furth

speaking behind closed doors to congress, marie yovanovitch said there had been a concerted campaignling his wife and four children in 2011 has been arrested at

and i think responsible public servants like former ambassador marie yovanovitch are now speaking outdevastating effect about what's going on. >> i'm glad you mentioned it because, john, i want to ask you about ambassador yovanovitch -- i've been saying her name correctly all week, and now i can't say it -- yovanovitch testified. ambassador sondland said that through his lawyer, he's going to testify wednesday despite guidance not to. it's very interesting he's going to do that. there are four key figures set to testify next week. why do you think these officials want to speak out? >> well, it may be they actually believe they have something that is favorable. there is, of course, that one text message that sondland sent that said "no quid pro quo" after talking to the president. now, that's taking it out of context of course in the full range of exchanges which really occurred. and i think sondland, which is something of a washington rookie, may think he can go in and just handle that committee, and it's going to be a lot tougher than he thinks it's going to be. he's going to be shar

quote, the contemptible mistreatment of marie yovanovitch, the u.s.assador to ukraine who was dismissed for getting in the way of the president's scheme to solicit interference in election series the latest example of the president's dangerous brand of diplomatic malpractice. his is a diplomacy of narcissism, bent on advancing private interests at the expense of our national interests. quote, for dictators, trump is the gift that keeps on giving, a nonstop advertisement for western self-dealing. so much for enlightened self-interest. so much for the power of our example. so much for our credibility. to clean up the institutional wreckage in the state department will take many years. the damage to our influence and reputation may prove to be even longer lasting and harder to repair. that's from ambassador william burns, former deputy secretary of state, former u.s. ambassador to russia. he's got more than 30 years of experience in the u.s. foreign service. joining us now is ambassador burns. he is currently the president of the carnegie endowment for i

we saw marie yovanovitch enter the building a short time ago.xpectation she would walk down this hallway. she could have entered the room in a different entrance. we'll watch that. going back to the question we were asking you initially. knowing that the white house said they were not going to comply with any of the democrats what they called unconstitutional proceedings and we saw the blocking of sondland's testimony earlier in the week, i guess there is some confusion why -- we're seeing her again, the witness is entering here. why did the white house not block this interview? >> well, my guess is that they gave that direction. i'm only going off of historically what i know how this process works. i don't know about today's exactly why it's going down this way. i'm guessing the white house told everybody that hey, if you work for us, we're not going to support you going in. i'm guessing that's why they gave this so-called friendly subpoena because this witness has been working with the democrats so they gave her what they are calling a friendl

that's related to his efforts to dig up dirt on ambassador marie yovanovitch in an attempt to get her recalled from kiev. yovanovitch testified about that at length yesterday but giuliani defended himself to "the times." he said he did that on behalf of president trump, not on behalf of ukrainian officials so arguing it wasn't a violation of that lobbying law. but president trump has begun to have doubts about the ability of giuliani to continue defending him, particularly after the arrests on wednesday of two giuliani associates. a person close to the legal team tells cnn that giuliani will continue to serve as the president's attorney but no longer deal with any issues that touch on ukraine. >> sarah westwood for us at the white house, thank you. >>> kevin liptak is with us now from washington. kevin, is there any indication that democrats got what they wanted from marie yovanovitch yesterday? >> yeah, i think they did. this was damning testimony from a 33-year veteran of the foreign service. she painted a scathing portrait of president trump's foreign policy, characterizing it as s

prosecutors say the two men also pressured a congressman to help oust former ambassador to ukraine marie yovanovitchbpoenas. trump mentioned yovanovitch already fired though the indictment states fruman and parnas wanted out of her job by the request of a ukrainian official. >> for more we're joined by scott jennings, keirsten powers and josh campbell, author of the really interesting new book "cross fire hurricane, inside donald trump's war on the fbi." keirsten, the idea rudy giuliani now won't deal with ukraine matters i'm not even sure what that means because i mean rudy giuliani suddenly going silent on ukraine, i don't know, it seems unlikely. >> right. well, this seem tuesday be an area he's very interested in and obviously has his tentacles all over the place as it relates to ukrainian issues and has for a long time. obviously this is making trouble for the president. you have the president even not directly answering whether or not he's actually working for the president anymore, sort of referring to it in the past tense. so this would suggest to me that they're recognizing that there's a p

her opening statement said among other things that come >> first of all, marie yovanovitch is one ofected ambassador as we have in the career foreign service. >> she is a democrat. she is a partisan. well documented. not somebody he was just reporting the clintons when clinton was running telling the ukrainians that clinton was going to win, but also once trump won was bad mouthing the trump administration in ukraine, to ukrainians and state department staff. >> i don't know her, she may be a wonderful woman. if you remember the phone call i had with the new president, he didn't speak favorably. >> bret: matthew, thoughts on that? >> i think this a sideshow from the main event, which is the president's phone call. there are a tendency for the democrats to go down these nooks and crannies. president trump can recall for any reason he wishes. democrats impeach donald trump, it's going to be about the phone call and whistle-blower complaint, not about the ambassador. >> i disagree with you a little bit. the democrats are trying to build a case of the president is corrupt and hiding it.

>> reporter: david, marie yovanovitch is scheduled to appear first thing tomorrow morning. but david, the state department could try to block her testimony at the last minute. and tonight, we've learned lawmakers have also subpoenaed those two associates of giuliani indicted today. david? >> pierre thomas tonight. thank you. >>> the impeachment showdown this evening and the president now lashing out after a new poll, this time from ne. 51% ant poll now believe the ached to supporters, from republicans on the hill to the president of ukraine, all being asked, is it right to ask a foreign leader, a foreign government, for help igd stveeg inat difficulty they answering that question. here's our chief white house correspondent jonathan karl. >> reporter: late today, president trump repeatedly defended his decision to ask the president of ukraine to investigate joe biden. >> we had an absolutely perfect conversation. >> reporter: but vulnerable republican senators, like cory gardner of colorado, are now facing tough questions. >> do you believe it's appropriate for the president

ambassador to ukraine marie yovanovitch is behind closed doors on capitol hill telling lawmakers about her time in president trump's state department including her stunning claim that president trump and "people with clearly questionable motives," forced her out. and if it had been up to the white house she never would have appeared. moments ago the chairman of the house intel foreign affairs and oversights committees announce the yovanovitch was issued a subpoena after the state department on direction of the white house told her not to show up. she served this nation as diplomat over three decades appointed by both republican and democratic presidents and in her opening statement obtained by the "new york times" this former ambassador takes us inside the moment she learned she would no longer be needed at the state department. she said, "i met with the deputy secretary of state who informed of curtailment of my term that the president lost confidence in me and no longer wished me to serve as ambassador. added there had been a concerted campaign against me and that the department had

ambassador to ukraine, marie yovanovitch. ukraine, marie yovanovitch. sessions in 2019 asked t sessions in 2018 asked the secretary of state to consider terminating her ambassadorship citing concrete evidence from two close companions that ambassador yovanovitch had spoken privately and repeatedly about her disdain for the current administration sessions says his motivation was that political appointees should not be disparaging the president, adding he will vigorously defend himself against any allegations of wrongdoing the indictment reveals they disguise $325,000 in donations to a pro-trump super pac which today says that money is in a segregated account while the legal battle unfolds the pairs' attorney is not commenting the president today. what conversations have you had with lev parnas and igor fruman? >> i don't know those gentlemen. it's possible i have a picture with them. because i have a picture with everybody. i have a picture with everybody here, but somebody said there may be a picture or something at a fund-raiser or somewhere. >> reporte

but beyond that we don't really know what marie yovanovitch has had to say, because what we have learnedd statement that was released as she was going in to give this testimony. but democrats may well have found out more full chris, how damaging has this all been to president trump, if at all? well, if you take a look at the polls, and there have been a number of polls done, people are moving, in terms of the american public, towards the idea that, actually, he should be impeached. now that wilkin ‘s only white house to a certain extent and it will unsettle republicans —— that will unsettle. the white house continues to fight on. but it hasn't been a good week, frankly. we have had this case brought against two soviet born us citizens who, it seems, were funnelling money, according to prosecutors, through an energy company set up in florida to republican vertical campaigns. these we re republican vertical campaigns. these were two individuals who were essentially welcomed into the white house, they were welcomed into mr trump's resort, and richard with the president. what is interesting

nobody was sure that marie yovanovitch would show up. members were optimistic. they had not heard that she would cancel. but members and aides were looking at that white house letter from earlier in the week thinking this would preclude any cooperation from anyone in the administration. so just the vakt that yovanovitch is in the building now is a good sign. that being said, we don't know how forthcoming she'll be in her testimony. the main thing democrats and republicans want to hear from her is why she's now former ambassador yovanovitch. what led to her being benched, pushed aside. there's been a lot of reporting, her friends and allies telling reporters that she was pushed out essentially for not working with the shadow diplomacy of rudy giuliani and his cohorts in ukraine. we have not heard that from yovanovitch directly. this is a closed door deposition today. but we will hear some of what she had to tell congressional investigators when this breaks up which may not be until later tonight, if she decides to cooperate fully with this investigation. >> hans,

we keep hearing about marie yovanovitch over and over again throughout this inquiry, this impeachment inquiry. we know that a couple months later in may yovanovitch was ousted. she was recalled from that position by the president. so what's philip reeker expected to say? well, we know that he is talking behind closed doors and congressional democrats especially, these investigators are going to want to know what secretary of state mike pompeo knew. what he knew about the complaints that reeker brought to him, or were brought to actually mike pompeo's ally, when another top state department official very close with pompeo. what did he know and what did he do about it? this deposition has been going on about three hours now and we are told they are just now starting a new round of questions. there is time left. >> some hours left for many of them. i'm curious, though, why is it on a saturday? they could have done this on monday or tuesday. why today? >> reporter: a couple reasons. first, because they lost a couple days of depositions because of the passing of elijah cummings, the chair

now that ambassador, marie yovanovitch, is scheduled to speak to congress in two hours. coming together in one really crazy story. it's unclear whether the president will try to block his testimony this morning as he did earlier this week with another state department official. we're waiting for word on that every minute that passes. >> new details about the july 25th phone call between president trump and the ukrainian president and the quid pro quo allegations in the whistle-blower complaint or the request for a favor. "the washington post" reports at least four national security officials were so alarmed by that phone

ambassador to ukraine, marie yovanovitch. in more than nine hours behind closed doors, yovanovitch told house lawmakers that president trump had personally pressured the state department to remove her over unfounded and false claims. >>> another strange week for the president from tearing into the impeachment inquiry, to his bizarre reason for abandoning the kurds in syria. here's a look at the week that was for the president. >> what they did to this country is unthinkable and it's lucky that i'm the president, because i guess i don't know what, a lot of people said, very few people could handle it. i sort of thrive on it. you know why? because it's so important, that we get to the bottom. we went through the whole mueller scam. you can't impeach a president for doing a great job. >> did any of white house official express any concern to you -- >> no. >> or speak to you about that phone call? >> it's all a big con. don't you understand? look, the phone call, you have it. it's the transcript. >> in the full house and the vote

i'm also told she's gone a step further to defend the work and the reputation of marie yovanovitch, the former ambassador to ukraine, who was ousted at least in some part having to do with the disinformation campaign that rudy giuliani set about. trying to -- trying to smear her because remember she was one of those officials who raised concerns about the work that giuliani was doing. now, fiona hill has always been sort of an intriguing person, intriguing choice at least for president trump to pick her to serve as his top russia expert. she is a well-known russia hawk. she's putin skeptic. at times, she found herself at odds with president trump given his state of desire to make nice with vladimir putin. but given her reported testimony, katy, given what we've heard from kurt, what we've heard from marie yovanovitch, you can see the pieces coming together. how democrats are going to stitch together this argument they're making against president trump. they say they know the what and why. what they're doing now is try to get to the bottom of how. how it is in their view that he solicite

you can understand how professionals like marie yovanovitch would be shocked and very disappointed in getting caught in the middle of that. i think again and i've said this before there is a pass/fail test here for republicans regardless of what they think about impeachment specifically is the president's conduct acceptable or not? is this request that a foreign leader somehow get involved in our political process acceptable or not? of course it isn't. republicans certainly have a right to criticize everything they want but should be forthcoming and truthful about the central questions being investigated here and of course the president's conduct is not acceptable. it's wrong. >> related to something you said a moment ago the "new york times" reporting that fiona hill, quote, viewed the recall of ambassador marie yovanovitch from kiev as an egregious abuse of the system by allies of mr. trump seeking to remove a perceived obstacle, according to a person familiar with her account who says hill and others objected strenuously to the removal of the ambassador to ukraine only to be disreg

marie yovanovitch. mr. giuliani said federal prosecutors had no grounds to charge him with foreign lobbying disclosure violations because he was acting on behalf of mr. trump not the prosecutor when he collected the information on ms. yovanovitch and others. members of congress heard more than nine hours of damning testimony from that former ambassador considered such a critical witness in the democrats' impeachment inquiry. marie yovanovitch is a 33 year ambassador. she served in 7 different countries, three as ambassador. in her prepared statement he wrote that the deputy of secretary of state told her there had been a concerted campaign against me and that the department had been under pressure from the president to remove me. as rudy's criticism of her, she wrote i do not know mr. giuliani's motives for attacking me. context may believe that corruption was stymied by anticorruption in ukraine. she adds we see the state department hollowed out from within. yovanovitch was pushed out as giuliani looked in