WASHINGTON — A recording of President Donald Trump calling for the firing of former Ukraine Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch during a private meeting that included indicted Rudy Giuliani associates was made public Friday morning while Democrats prepared to enter their final day of opening arguments in the Senate impeachment trial.
“Get rid of her!” Trump appeared to say in the recording, which was reviewed and reported by ABC News. “Get her out tomorrow. I don’t care. Get her out tomorrow. Take her out. Okay? Do it.” Trump said.
The recording was allegedly made at a private dinner on April 30, 2018 at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. ABC reported that the recording was made by Igor Fruman, a Belarus-born businessman. Fruman, along with Soviet-born businessman Lev Parnas, faces federal campaign finance charges.
Fruman, Parnas and other unnamed associates were present during the recorded conversation, ABC reported.
The Trump administration recalled Yovanovitch from her position a year later, in April 2019, after Giuliani mounted what other impeachment witnesses have called a “smear campaign” against her.
‘I forced her out’:Rudy Giuliani details role in ouster of former Ukraine Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch
The president is accused of holding up millions in military aid in order to pressure Ukraine’s president into opening investigations into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, who was a board member of a Ukrainian company. The president also wanted an investigation into his theory Ukraine interfered in the 2016 election.
The recording appears to at least partially corroborate the account Parnas gave in a recent wave of media interviews, where he claimed that Trump was aware of his efforts in helping Giuliani press for an investigation of the Bidens.
Trump’s statements on the recording were an apparent reaction to Parnas and Fruman’s telling the president that Yovanovitch badmouthed the president, ABC reported.
“The biggest problem there, I think where we need to start is we gotta get rid of the ambassador… She’s basically walking around telling everybody ‘Wait, he’s gonna get impeached, just wait,'” Parnas told Trump in the recording, according to ABC.
Yovanovitch denied any undermining of Trump in her testimony during the House impeachment inquiry.
Trump has repeatedly denied knowing Parnas, who claims he assisted with the alleged pressure campaign against Ukraine at the center of his impeachment. Documents released by the House committees investigating impeachment that were provided by Parnas include Parnas’ conversations with Giuliani and others about Yovanovitch.
New evidence:Was former Ambassador Yovanovitch being watched in Ukraine?
“He was aware of all my movements. I wouldn’t do anything without the consent of Rudy Giuliani, or the president,” Parnas said in an interview with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow earlier this month.
Parnas also recalled he was present at an “intimate dinner” at the same location the recording was made with about six people, including Trump.
“I do remember me telling the president that the ambassador was badmouthing him and saying that he was going to get impeached, something to that effect,” Parnas told Maddow. He said Trump immediately told an aide to “fire her.”
‘Trump knew exactly what was going on’:What Giuliani associate Lev Parnas has said about Trump, Pence and Ukraine
In response to the recording, the White House defended the president.
“Every President in our history has had the right to place people who support his agenda and his policies within his Administration,” press secretary Stephanie Grisham said.
Trump was also asked about ABC’s reporting in an interview with Fox News on Friday, and he doubled down on attacks of Yovanovitch.
“I make no bones about it, I want to have ambassadors—I have every right, I want ambassadors that are chosen by me. I have a right to hire and fire ambassadors, and that’s a very important thing,” he said.
Vice President Mike Pence also told reporters in Rome that he had not heard the recording, but reiterated: “All of the ambassadors for the United States of America serve at the pleasure of the president of the United States.”
The audio, he said, “will only confirm what people already know: is that the president had concerns, and in his authority this president made a decision.“
Senators are currently weighing whether to convict and remove Trump from office after he was impeached Dec. 18 on two articles of impeachment: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The charges stem from Trump’s alleged pressure campaign on Ukraine and what Democrats say was his stonewalling of the impeachment investigation.
Senate trial:Final day of Democrats’ opening arguments in Trump impeachment trial begins
Speaking to press shortly before the Senate trial resumed Friday, Republican Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said Trump was “totally allowed to” recall Yovanovitch from her position. Jordan, a vocal Trump defender in the impeachment process, dismissed a question about whether the newly surfaced recording means the Senate should hear testimony form Parnas.
“We feel validated that everything that’s been reported in the news about the event on April 30, 2018, would appear to corroborate in material respects what Lev Parnas has said about the meeting and his recollection of that meeting with regards to the president,” Parnas’ attorney told The Washington Post about the new report, but denied that Parnas was in possession of the recording.
ABC reported that federal prosecutors in New York’s Southern District now have a copy of the recording.
Contributing: David Jackson
Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/01/24/trump-called-ukraine-ambassadors-firing-recording-report-says/4564941002/
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