A8 eZ Re the washington post.saturday, november 16 , 2019
drastic budget c uts proposed at
the s tart of t he administration.
Pompeo’s arrival, after
Tillerson w as sacked b y a
presidential tweet, brought a
moment of h ope t o the
department, a hope that he could
and w ould try to restore morale
and r einject the sense of s ervice
into the career f oreign officers
and o thers. Instead, o ver time,
things h ave gotten worse, and as
the U kraine issue erupted i nto
public view, Pompeo’s s ilence h as
been especially n otable. T hat is
the d ifficulty of serving a
president who demands l oyalty t o
him a nd often to him a lone.
The public will hear from o ther
career o fficials next w eek, people
who by happenstance were in
places that gave them knowledge
and insight into what was
happening and who found it
immensely troubling.
Those d efending the p resident
may disagree w ith their
conclusions o r whether what they
are describing is worthy of
impeachment a nd removal from
office. But those views ought n ot
to cloud t he recognition of the
service these officials h ave and
continue to provide — especially
now i n such trying times.
[email protected]leaders to s tand up f or the
institution a nd t he individuals
who make that institution, still,
today, the m ost effective
diplomatic f orce in t he w orld.”
Trump ended his tweet about
Yovanovitch by stating, “It is a
U.S. President’s a bsolute r ight to
appoint ambassadors.” That was
something w hich s he, Taylor,
Kent and others in t heir positions
know and r espect. They a re
nominated b y presidents, p ass
through c onfirmation by t he
Senate and serve at t he pleasure
of whichever president i s in
office.
They a lso have a sense of
obligation to offer their best
advice to those in command. They
accept w ho has u ltimate
authority and responsibility, b ut
having taken an oath to defend
the C onstitution, they try to live
up to that b ased on t heir best
judgments and g rounded in t he
experiences they have b uilt u p
over time.
The deterioration at t he State
Department predated Pompeo’s
arrival. Under rex Tillerson, the
former E xxon executive who was
Trump’s f irst secretary of s tate,
departmental morale began t o
sink, in part because he s eemed
unwilling to defend againstHouse impeachment hearing
BY KAROUN DEMIRJIAN AND
ROSALIND S. HELDERMANformer ambassador marie Yo-
vanovitch began her testimony in
the House impeachment hearing
friday with praise for Ukrainians
who took a stand against corrup-
tion in their country in a 20 14
movement called the revolution
of Dignity.
The reference doubled as a call
to action that she directed at U.S.
leaders — a pointed reminder of
their obligation to defend the dig-
nity of civilian career diplomats
around the world.
Yovanovitch — who was
abruptly yanked from her post in
Kyiv after being targeted in a
smear campaign that reached
President Trump — warned that
the State Department was “being
hollowed out” and in “crisis.” She
called on its leadership “to stand
up for the institution and the
individuals who make that insti-
tution the most effective diplo-
matic force in the world.”
The testimony of the former
ambassador put a compelling hu-
man face on a complex interna-
tional scandal that has involved a
cast of unfamiliar Ukrainian
characters, descriptions of shad-
owy back-channels and constitu-
tional debates.
In resolute, clear tones, the
veteran diplomat described how
she came to learn of the plot
against her — and how shaken she
was to read the president’s men-
acing comments about her in a
call to his Ukrainian counterpart.
But over and over again, Yo-
vanovitch sought to turn the fo-
cus away f rom her personally and
back on the larger implications of
her ouster.
“our Ukraine policy has been
thrown into disarray, and shady
interests the world over have
learned how little it takes to re-
move an American ambassador
who does not give them what they
want,” she said. “A fter these
events, what foreign official, cor-
rupt or not, could be blamed for
wondering whether the ambassa-
dor represents the president’s
views? And what U.S. ambassa-
dor could be blamed for harbor-
ing the fear that they cannot
count on our government to sup-
port them?”
The room was rapt as she
spoke, with nearly every lawmak-
er sitting at attention or leaning
in to listen as she carefully de-
scribed how she was targeted by
associates of Trump’s attorney,
rudolph W. Giuliani, and a series
of former prosecutors in Ukraine.
Trump went after her again as
she testified. “Everywhere marie
Yovanovitch went turned bad,” he
tweeted about a woman whoserved in Somalia, Armenia and
Uzbekistan.
Democratic lawmakers imme-
diately accused him of witness
intimidation and House republi-
cans in the hearing refrained
from similar attacks, some of
them o ffering extensive praise for
her service.
They sought to parry her testi-
mony largely by arguing that it
was irrelevant to the impeach-
ment probe into whether the
president abused his power.
“We’re learning a whole bunch
about her feelings, but... she
doesn’t have any relevant facts,”rep. mark meadows (r-N.C.) told
reporters during a break in the
testimony.
Some republicans accused
Democrats of trying to use Yo-
vanovitch to inject drama into the
hearings for the watching audi-
ence.
“They wanted her to cry for the
cameras,” rep. Lee Zeldin (r-N.Y.)
told reporters, referring to how
Yovanovitch became emotional
during her closed-door deposi-
tion last month when describing
the circumstances of her firing.
At one moment friday, Yovano-
vitch appeared to hold back tearswhen she was asked by rep. Te rri
A. Sewell (D-Ala.) how it felt per-
sonally to have her reputation
sullied. “It was a difficult time,”
she said, shaking her head. “I’m a
private person. I don’t w ant to put
all that out there.”
But for much of the day, she
was composed, and her voice was
precise and clear as she sat
straight-backed on the edge of her
chair for more than five hours
fielding questions.
“I obviously don’t dispute that
the president has the right to
withdraw an ambassador, at any
time for any reason,” said the33-year veteran of the foreign
Service who has served under
republican and Democratic pres-
idents. “But what I do wonder is,
why was it necessary to smear my
reputation?”
When asked by Intelligence
Committee Chairman rep. Adam
B. Schiff (D-Calif.) why she didn’t
defend herself more openly to the
attacks against her, she added: “I
think it was for others to stand up
for me.”
However, Secretary of State
mike Pompeo never made a state-
ment in her defense because he
was worried Trump would under-
mine it in a tweet, Yovanovitch
testified that she was told.
Yovanovitch is in many ways
the opposite of Trump: soft-spo-
ken, physically slight and, on fri-
day, prone to deflecting attention
away from herself, even as she
was the focus of a presidential
impeachment hearing.
But throughout the hearing,
Yovanovitch was steely in her de-
fense of the diplomats and insti-
tutions that promote U.S. policy
abroad without weapons. She in-
voked the memory of everyone
from the hostages in Iran to the
felled in Benghazi in her appeal to
respect and defend the foreign
Service against those who would
undermine it — including the
Trump administration.
She also voiced her continued
concern for Ukraine, pledging to
rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) that
she would endeavor to continue
fighting corruption there.
At one point, rep. Will Hurd
(r-Te x.), a former CIA officer who
is seen as a potential wild card in
the GoP on impeachment, ap-
plauded Yovanovitch.
“You’re tough as nails and
you’re smart as hell,” he said.
“You’re an honor to this country
and I thank you.”
At the end of the day, as Yo-
vanovitch departed the hearing
room, members of the public in
the audience leaped to their feet,
giving her an extended standing
ovation.
[email protected]
[email protected]Yovanovitch urges U.S. officials to ‘stand up’ and defend diplomatic corps
Bonnie Jo Mount/the Washington Post
Former ambassador Marie Yovanovitch arrives to a wall of photographers before testifying during the impeachment inquiry.about what t hey regarded as the
hijacking o f U. S. policy, and t he
traditional policy p rocess, b y
rudolph W. G iuliani, the
president’s personal attorney,
which t hey saw as a subversion of
U.S. i nterests for personal or
political i nterests.
They w ere even more clear
about their dismay with what
they saw as the p resident’s
determination t o make military
aid t o Ukraine and a White House
meeting w ith Volodymyr
Zelensky, the newly e lected
president, c ontingent o n a public
pronouncement o f investigations
into Ukraine’s r ole in the 2 016
election a nd into former vice
president Joe Biden and his son
Hunter, w ho served on the b oard
of a Ukrainian e nergy c ompany.
Yovanovitch, Taylor, Kent and
thousands a nd t housands like
them have served loyally
throughout t he government f or
generations. mostly t hey have
little public visibility, p referringWednesday by two other career
diplomats, William B. Taylor Jr.,
who is serving as t he senior
diplomat i n Ukraine, a nd G eorge
Kent, t he State Department’s
leading e xpert o n Ukraine. None
was t here a s a public advocate for
or against the impeachment of
the p resident b ut as what Ta ylor
described as “fact” w itnesses t o
events under examination.
They w ere measured a nd
direct as they recounted w hat
they had seen and heard from
their individual vantage points,
resisting e fforts t o be drawn into
the p olitical warfare b eing waged
between republicans a nd
Democrats on the c ommittee
while r emaining f ocused o n
providing a narrative of the
events of w hich t hey were a part,
based o n recollections, n otes a nd
memos.
But t hey were also p assionate
in describing t he alarm they f elt
take from a
The TAKe
Diplomats come under attack
as hearings get into full swing
broader than the impact o n the
lives of individual career o fficials.
“The State Department,” s he said,
“is b eing h ollowed out from
within at a competitive and
complex t ime on the w orld stage.”
In s ome of her most pointed
comments o f the morning, s he
put t he leadership of t he
department on n otice. “ This is
not a time t o undercut our
diplomats,” s he said. “It is the
responsibility of the department’sto avoid the l imelight and r arely
speaking out of school publicly.
But t hings have c hanged. Now as
never since perhaps the
mcCarthy era of the 1950s, t hey
are under attack f or doing what
they long h ave done.
Yovanovitch described t he
impact. “ The attacks,” s he said,
“are leading to a crisis i n the State
Department as the p olicy p rocess
is visibly u nraveling.” S he w ent on
to say that the c risis is m uchBonnie Jo Mount/the Washington Post
“this is not a time to undercut our diplomats,” Marie Yovanovitch,
the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, said in testimony Friday.In a House subcommittee hearing, the old bipartisan commitment to whistleblowers is on display
with little to no oversight” a nd
employees who conducted
investigations without proper
training.
Her office “lacked its own
culture of accountability for its
first two years of operations,” s he
said. VA whistleblowers who lost
their jobs or were retaliated
against in other ways relied on
the office to thoroughly
investigate their allegations. Ye t
the report found only 15 percent
of the cases were referred to the
office’s investigation division, a
situation Wasserman Schultz
found “completely unacceptable.”
Bonzanto said she is working
to improve the office by tracking
investigations and mandating
that staffers keep whistleblowers
informed about the status of
their cases. She has increased the
number of investigators by a
third, and the office is developing
customized training for them.
“I understand and share the
sense of urgency to improve
oAWP operations,” Bonzanto told
committee members. “I also
recognize the substantial impact
that the deficiencies in oAWP
have had on whistleblowers and
VA employees who disclose
wrongdoing.”
[email protected]conducted with the highest
ethical standards, which does not
yet appear to have been
achieved.”
l An office program whose
stated purpose was to help
whistleblowers reestablish
themselves within the
department “was being used
inappropriately to target
whistleblowers.”
l former officials directed 15
percent of the office’s fiscal 2018
budget to contracts “for purposes
unrelated to oAWP’s core
mission.” After Bonzanto took
over, she told inspectors,
“Everything that they were doing,
none of it was related to oAWP.”
missal indicated that his team
has a good working relationship
with the office under Bonzanto
and that it has developed action
plans for the report’s
recommendations. Ye t, he said,
some “planned actions lacked
sufficient clarity or specific
steps.”
Bonzanto, who also testified at
the hearing, didn’t sugarcoat the
problems. After taking office in
January, she found numerous
issues consistent with the
inspector general’s report,
“including staff who were
making decisions on my behalfvery individuals it was meant to
protect,” missal said.
He said those leadership
failures “ have had a chilling
effect on complainants still being
felt today,” though he
acknowledged the office’s
improvement under the current
leadership of Assistant Secretary
Ta mara Bonzanto.
Among the report’s
disclosures, missal said:
l Previous leaders
misconstrued the office’s
mandate by conducting inquiries
it should not have and declining
to probe matters it was required
to investigate.
l Under prior leadership, the
office “did not adopt
comprehensive written policies
and procedures on any topic,” a
situation that lasted at least until
July.
l T he office “failed to provide
the staffing and training
necessary to ensure it has the
expertise, experience, and
commitment” needed.
l VA leaders fell short on a
commitment to “timely,
thorough, and unbiased
investigations.” many issues took
a year or more to close. VA
employees and others must be
assured “investigations arePresident Trump’s alleged effort
to use foreign policy for his
personal political benefit.
Anonymity is important
because many whistleblowers,
fearing management reprisals,
would not report government
wrongdoing without it. VA has a
shameful history of retaliation
against whistleblowers,
particularly after the scandal
over the coverup of long patient
wait times erupted in 2014.
A Trump executive order
established the office, supposedly
for whistleblowers’ protection, in
April 2017. Congress codified it
with legislation two months later.
“We are sending a strong
message,” Trump said about
whistleblowers then. “We will
make sure that they’re protected.”
Instead, the office “failed to
establish safeguards sufficient to
protect whistleblowers from
becoming the subject of
retaliatory investigations,” missal
testified in the rayburn House
office Building.
former leaders of the office
didn’t know what they were
doing, according to the report’s
findings. T hey “made avoidable
mistakes early in its development
that created an office culture that
was sometimes alienating to thehelp veterans get the service they
need, that they deserve, that they
earned, was a travesty.”
After rep. John Carter (Texas),
the top republican on the panel,
read the report about VA’s office
of Accountability and
Whistleblower Protection
(oAWP), he concluded “that
pretty much the whole thing is a
wreck... that everything is
broken.”
one wrecked part of the office
was its responsibility to protect
whistleblowers’ identities when
they requested anonymity.
Inspector G eneral michael J.
missal told the hearing the office
“failed to fully protect
whistleblowers from retaliation.”
former officials in the office, he
added, “took the position that
allegations of whistleblower
retaliation could not be
investigated unless the
whistleblower was willing to
disclose his or her identity.”
missal’s statement came one
day after House Intelligence
Committee Democrats rejected a
republican move to subpoena
the CIA whistleblower in the
Ukraine scandal. T hose
revelations in the whistleblower’s
complaint led to the
impeachment inquiry examiningUntil the Ukraine
impeachment
scandal exploded,
the protection of
federal
whistleblowers
was important to
republicans and
Democrats alike.
That old
bipartisan
commitment was
on display Thursday during a
House Appropriations
subcommittee hearing about a
Department of Veterans Affairs
internal watchdog report. The
inspector general found an office
meant to protect whistleblowers
inflicted injury instead.
Employee confidence in the
department’s willingness and
ability to deal appropriately with
whistleblowers has been
damaged — and it could take a
long time to heal.
Departing from her prepared
opening statement, rep. Debbie
Wasserman Schultz (D-fla.),
chairwoman of the veterans
affairs subcommittee, said the
findings by VA’s inspector general
“were incredibly disturbing....
The fact that this office seemed to
be used as a political weapon,
rather than a tool to be able to
Federal
Insider
Joe
davidson
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