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  Mr. Giuliani later publicly acknowledged that he was seeking information from Ukrainians on behalf of his client, President Trump. On October 23, Mr. Giuliani tweeted “everything I did was to discover evidence to defend my client against false charges.”42 Then, in a series of tweets on October 30, Mr. Giuliani stated:

  All of the information I obtained came from interviews conducted as…private defense counsel to POTUS, to defend him against false allegations. I began obtaining this information while Mueller was still investigating his witch hunt and a full 5 months before Biden even announced his run for Pres.43

  President Trump and Mr. Giuliani’s efforts to investigate alleged Ukrainian interference in the 2016 U.S. election and Vice President Biden negatively impacted the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv. Mr. Holmes testified:

  Beginning in March 2019, the situation at the Embassy and in Ukraine changed dramatically. Specifically, the three priorities of security, economy, and justice and our support for Ukrainian democratic resistance to Russian aggression became overshadowed by a political agenda promoted by former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and a cadre of officials operating with a direct channel to the White House.44

  U.S. national interests in Ukraine were undermined and subordinated to the personal, political interests of President Trump.

  The Smear Campaign Accelerated in Late March 2019

  The smear campaign entered a more public phase in the United States in late March 2019 with the publication of a series of opinion pieces in The Hill.

  On March 20, 2019, John Solomon penned an opinion piece quoting a false claim by Mr. Lutsenko that Ambassador Yovanovitch had given him a do-not-prosecute list.45 Mr. Lutsenko later retracted the claim.46 Mr. Solomon’s work also included false allegations that Ambassador Yovanovitch had “made disparaging statements about President Trump.”47 Ambassador Yovanovitch called this allegation “fictitious,” and the State Department issued a statement describing the allegations as a “fabrication.”48

  The Committees uncovered evidence of close ties and frequent contacts between Mr. Solomon and Mr. Parnas, who was assisting Mr. Giuliani in connection with his representation of the President. Phone records show that in the 48 hours before publication of The Hill opinion piece, Mr. Parnas spoke with Mr. Solomon at least six times.49 In addition, The Hill piece cited a letter dated May 9, 2018, from Representative Pete Sessions (R-Texas) to Secretary Pompeo, in which Rep. Sessions accused Ambassador Yovanovitch of speaking “privately and repeatedly about her disdain for the current administration.”50 A federal criminal indictment alleges that in or about May 2018, Mr. Parnas sought a congressman’s assistance to remove Ambassador Yovanovitch, at the request of one or more Ukrainian government officials.51

  On March 20, 2019, the day The Hill opinion piece was published, Mr. Parnas again spoke with Mr. Solomon for 11 minutes.52 Shortly after that phone call, President Trump promoted Mr. Solomon’s article in a tweet.53

  Following President Trump’s tweet, the public attacks against Ambassador Yovanovitch were further amplified on social media and were merged with the conspiracy theories regarding both Ukrainian interference in the 2016 U.S. election and the Bidens. On March 22, 2019, Mr. Giuliani tweeted: “Hillary, Kerry, and Biden people colluding with Ukrainian operatives to make money and affect 2016 election.” He also gave an interview to Fox News in which he raised Hunter Biden and called for an investigation.54 Then, on March 24, Donald Trump Jr. called Ambassador Yovanovitch a “joker” on Twitter and called for her removal.55

  This campaign reverberated in Ukraine. Mr. Kent testified that “starting in mid-March” Mr. Giuliani was “almost unmissable” during this “campaign of slander” against Ambassador Yovanovitch.56 According to Mr. Kent, Mr. Lutsenko’s press spokeswoman retweeted Donald Trump, Jr.’s tweet attacking the Ambassador.57

  Concerns About President Trump Kept State Department from Issuing Statement of Support

  At the end of March, as this smear campaign intensified, Ambassador Yovanovitch sent Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs David Hale an email identifying her concerns with the false allegations about her and asking for a strong statement of support from the State Department. She explained that, otherwise, “it makes it hard to be a credible ambassador in a country.”58 Ambassador Hale had been briefed on the smears in a series of emails from Mr. Kent.59 Ambassador Hale agreed that the allegations were without merit.60

  Ambassador Yovanovitch was told that State Department officials were concerned that if they issued a public statement supporting her, “it could be undermined” by “[t]he President.”61 Ambassador Hale explained that a statement of support “would only fuel further negative reaction” and that “it might even provoke a public reaction from the President himself about the Ambassador.”62 In short, State Department officials were concerned “that the rug would be pulled out from underneath the State Department.”63

  Ambassador Yovanovitch turned to the U.S. Ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, for advice. According to Ambassador Yovanovitch, Ambassador Sondland suggested that, in response to the smear campaign, she make a public statement in support of President Trump. She said Ambassador Sondland told her, “you need to go big or go home” and “tweet out there that you support the President, and that all these are lies and everything else.”64 Ambassador Yovanovitch said she felt that this “was advice that I did not see how I could implement in my role as an Ambassador, and as a Foreign Service officer.”65

  Ultimately, Secretary Pompeo refused to issue a public statement of support for Ambassador Yovanovitch. At the same time Secretary Pompeo was refusing to issue a statement, he was communicating with one of the individuals involved in the smear campaign against her. State Department records show that Secretary Pompeo spoke to Mr. Giuliani on March 26 and 28, not long after Mr. Solomon’s first article in The Hill.66

  The Smear Campaign was a Coordinated Effort by Mr. Giuliani, His Associates, and One or More Individuals at the White House

  In April, Mr. Solomon continued to publish opinion pieces about Ambassador Yovanovitch and other conspiracy theories being pursued by Mr. Giuliani on behalf of President Trump. Mr. Solomon was not working alone. As further described below, there was a coordinated effort by associates of President Trump to push these false narratives publicly, as evidenced by public statements, phone records, and contractual agreements.

  On April 1, Mr. Solomon published an opinion piece in The Hill alleging that Vice President Biden had inappropriately petitioned for the removal of Mr. Shokin to protect his son, Hunter.67 The opinion piece was entitled, “Joe Biden’s 2020 Ukrainian Nightmare: A Closed Probe is Revived.” Many of the allegations in the piece were based on information provided by Mr. Lutsenko. The following day, Donald Trump, Jr. retweeted the article.68

  Phone records obtained by the Committees show frequent communication between key players during this phase of the scheme. Between April 1 and April 7, Mr. Parnas exchanged approximately 16 calls with Mr. Giuliani (longest duration approximately seven minutes) and approximately 10 calls with Mr. Solomon (longest duration approximately nine minutes).69

  On April 7, Mr. Solomon followed up with another opinion piece. The piece accused Ambassador Yovanovitch of preventing the issuance of U.S. visas for Ukrainian officials who wished to travel to the United States to provide purported evidence of wrongdoing by “American Democrats and their allies in Kiev.”70 One of those Ukrainian officials allegedly denied a visa was Konstiantyn Kulyk, a deputy to Mr. Lutesenko. Mr. Kulyk participated in a “wide-ranging interview” with Mr. Solomon and was extensively quoted.71

  These Ukrainian officials claimed to have evidence of wrongdoing about Vice President Biden’s efforts in 2015 to remove Mr. Shokin, Hunter Biden’s role as a Burisma board member, Ukrainian interference in the 2016 U.S. election in favor of Hillary Clinton, and the misappropriation and transfer of Ukrainian funds abroad.72 The opinio
n piece also made clear that Mr. Giuliani was pursuing these very same theories on behalf of the President:

  More recently, President Trump’s private attorney Rudy Giuliani—former mayor and former U.S. attorney in New York City—learned about some of the allegations while, on behalf of the Trump legal team, he looked into Ukrainian involvement in the 2016 election.

  According to Mr. Solomon’s piece, Mr. Lutsenko was reported to have sufficient evidence, “particularly involving Biden, his family and money spirited out of Ukraine—to warrant a meeting with U.S. Attorney General William Barr.”73

  On the same day that Mr. Solomon published these allegations, Mr. Giuliani appeared on Fox News. Mr. Giuliani discussed how he learned about alleged Ukrainian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections and the Bidens’ purported misconduct in Ukraine:

  Let me tell you my interest in that. I got information about three or four months ago that a lot of the explanations for how this whole phony investigation started will be in the Ukraine, that there were a group of people in the Ukraine that were working to help Hillary Clinton and were colluding really—[LAUGHTER]—with the Clinton campaign. And it stems around the ambassador and the embassy, being used for political purposes. So I began getting some people that were coming forward and telling me about that. And then all of a sudden, they revealed the story about Burisma and Biden’s son…[Vice President Biden] bragged about pressuring Ukraine’s president to firing [sic] a top prosecutor who was being criticized on a whole bunch of areas but was conducting investigation of this gas company which Hunter Biden served as a director.74

  The next day, April 8, Mr. Giuliani tweeted about Mr. Solomon’s opinion piece.75

  Over the course of the four days following the April 7 article, phone records show contacts between Mr. Giuliani, Mr. Parnas, Representative Devin Nunes, and Mr. Solomon. Specifically, Mr. Giuliani and Mr. Parnas were in contact with one another, as well as with Mr. Solomon.76 Phone records also show contacts on April 10 between Mr. Giuliani and Rep. Nunes, consisting of three short calls in rapid succession, followed by a text message, and ending with a nearly three minute call.77 Later that same day, Mr. Parnas and Mr. Solomon had a four minute, 39 second call.78

  Victoria Toensing, a lawyer who, along with her partner Joseph diGenova, once briefly represented President Trump in connection with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation,79 also was in phone contact with Mr. Giuliani and Mr. Parnas at the beginning of April.80

  Beginning in mid-April, Ms. Toensing signed retainer agreements between diGenova & Toensing LLP and Mr. Lutsenko, Mr. Kulyk, and Mr. Shokin—all of whom feature in Mr. Solomon’s opinion pieces.81 In these retainer agreements, the firm agreed to represent Mr. Lutsenko and Mr. Kulyk in meetings with U.S. officials regarding alleged “evidence” of Ukrainian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections, and to represent Mr. Shokin “for the purpose of collecting evidence regarding his March 2016 firing as Prosecutor General of Ukraine and the role of Vice President Biden in such firing, and presenting such evidence to U.S. and foreign authorities.”82 On July 25, President Trump would personally press President Zelensky to investigate these very same matters.

  On April 23, Mr. Parnas had a call with Mr. Solomon, and multiple phone contacts with Mr. Giuliani.83 On that same day, Mr. Giuliani had a series of short phone calls (ranging from 11 to 18 seconds) with a phone number associated with the White House, followed shortly thereafter by an eight minute, 28 second call with an unidentified number that called him.84 Approximately half an hour later, Mr. Giuliani had a 48 second call with a phone number associated with Ambassador John Bolton, National Security Advisor to the President.85

  That same day, Mr. Giuliani tweeted:

  Hillary is correct the report is the end of the beginning for the second time…NO COLLUSION. Now Ukraine is investigating Hillary campaign and DNC conspiracy with foreign operatives including Ukrainian and others to affect 2016 election. And there’s no Comey to fix the result.86

  The next day, on the morning of April 24, Mr. Giuliani appeared on Fox and Friends, lambasting the Mueller investigation. Mr. Giuliani also promoted the false conspiracy theories about Ukraine and Vice President Biden:

  And I ask you to keep your eye on Ukraine, because in Ukraine, a lot of the dirty work was done in digging up the information. American officials were used, Ukrainian officials were used. That’s like collusion with the Ukrainians. And, or actually in this case, conspiracy with the Ukrainians. I think you’d get some interesting information about Joe Biden from Ukraine. About his son, Hunter Biden. About a company he was on the board of for years, which may be one of the most crooked companies in Ukraine…. And Biden bragged about the fact that he got the prosecutor general fired. The prosecutor general was investigating his son and then the investigation went south.87

  Later that day, Mr. Giuliani had three phone calls with a number associated with OMB, and eight calls with a White House number.88 One of the calls with the White House was four minutes, 53 seconds, and another was three minutes, 15 seconds.

  Later that evening, the State Department phoned Ambassador Yovanovitch and abruptly called her home because of “concerns” from “up the street” at the White House.89

  Ambassador Yovanovitch Was Informed That the President “Lost Confidence” in Her

  When Ambassador Yovanovitch returned to the United States at the end of April, Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan informed her that she had “done nothing wrong,” but “there had been a concerted campaign” against her and that President Trump had “lost confidence” in her leadership.90 He also told her that “the President no longer wished me to serve as Ambassador to Ukraine, and that, in fact, the President had been pushing for my removal since the prior summer.”91 Ambassador Philip T. Reeker, Acting Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, offered a similar assessment. He explained to Ambassador Yovanovitch that Secretary Pompeo had tried to “protect” her, but “was no longer able to do that.”92

  Counselor of the Department of State T. Ulrich Brechbuhl, who had been handling Ambassador Yovanovitch’s recall, refused to meet with her.93

  Ambassador Yovanovitch’s final day as U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine was May 20, 2019. This was the same day as President Zelensky’s inauguration, which was attended by Secretary of Energy Rick Perry, Ambassador Sondland, and Ambassador Volker.94 Rather than joining the official delegation at the inaugural festivities, she finished packing her personal belongings and boarded an airplane for her final flight home. Three days later, President Trump met in the Oval Office with his hand-picked delegation and gave them the “directive” to “talk with Rudy [Giuliani]” about Ukraine.95

  The President Provided No Rationale for the Recall of Ambassador Yovanovitch

  Ambassador Yovanovitch testified that she was never provided a justification for why President Trump recalled her.96 Only two months earlier, in early March 2019, Ambassador Yovanovitch had been asked by Ambassador Hale to extend her assignment as Ambassador to Ukraine until 2020.97

  Ambassador Hale testified that Ambassador Yovanovitch was “an exceptional officer doing exceptional work at a very critical embassy in Kyiv.”98 He added, “I believe that she should’ve been able to stay at post and continue to do the outstanding work that she was doing.”99

  During her more than three-decade career, Ambassador Yovanovitch received a number of awards, including: the Presidential Distinguished Service Award, the Secretary’s Diplomacy in Human Rights Award, the Senior Foreign Service Performance Award six times, and the State Department’s Superior Honor Award five times.100

  Career foreign service officer Ambassador P. Michael McKinley, former Senior Advisor to Secretary Pompeo, testified that Ambassador Yovanovitch’s reputation was “excellent, serious, committed.”101 Ambassador Reeker described her as an “[o]utstanding diplomat,” “very precise, very—very professional,”
“an excellent mentor,” and “a good leader.”102

  Ambassador Yovanovitch Strongly Advocated for the U.S. Policy to Combat Corruption

  Throughout the course of her career, and while posted to Kyiv, Ambassador Yovanovitch was a champion of the United States’ longstanding priority of combatting corruption.

  Mr. Kent described U.S. foreign policy in Ukraine as encompassing the priorities of “promoting the rule of law, energy independence, defense sector reform, and the ability to stand up to Russia.”103 Ambassador Yovanovitch testified that it “was—and remains—a top U.S. priority to help Ukraine fight corruption” because corruption makes Ukraine more “vulnerable to Russia.”104 Additionally, she testified that an honest and accountable Ukrainian leadership makes a U.S.-Ukrainian partnership more reliable and more valuable to the United States.105

  Mr. Holmes testified that Ambassador Yovanovitch was successful in implementing anti-corruption reforms in Ukraine by achieving, for example, “the hard-fought passage of a law establishing an independent court to try corruption cases.”106 Mr. Holmes said Ambassador Yovanovitch was “[a]s good as anyone known for” combatting corruption.107 The reforms achieved by Ambassador Yovanovitch helped reduce the problem faced by many post-Soviet countries of selective corruption prosecutions to target political opponents.108

  There was a broad consensus that Ambassador Yovanovitch was successful in helping Ukraine combat pervasive and endemic corruption.

  President’s Authority Does Not Explain Removal of Yovanovitch