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undermined, Yovanovitch sent an email on
the State Department’s classified system. She
told her bosses about Giuliani’s shadow nego-
tiations with Ukrainian officials and the smear
campaign against her, and urged a statement
of support. It never came. Less than a month
later, she was on a plane back to the U.S.
In Washington, there was at least one per-
son Yovanovitch trusted enough to tell about
her mysterious recall: her potential replace-
ment, Ambassador William Taylor, a decorated
veteran and mentor to a generation of foreign-
service officers. When they met in his office
overlooking the Lincoln Memorial, Taylor
closed the interior blinds of the glass-walled
room to let Yovanovitch talk freely, eyes well-
ing with tears as she told the story. One of her
deepest regrets was the way she had been forced
to leave the embassy staff without really say-
ing goodbye or explaining the reasons for her
sudden departure, she told people close to her.
Even before that, Taylor had concerns about
taking over in Kyiv, where he had served as U.S.
ambassador from 2006 to 2009. A strong be-
liever in helping the country fight back against
Russia, which had invaded it in 2014, he wor-
ried that President Trump “has a special place
in his heart for Putin,” says one person famil-
iar with Taylor’s thinking. As he observed Gi-
uliani’s shadow diplomacy, Taylor decided to
consult one of his mentors, Stephen Hadley,
who served as National Security Adviser under
President George W. Bush. Hadley told Taylor
what he had told others weighing public ser-
vice under the Trump Administration: only do
it if you believe you can be effective. To know,
Taylor needed to talk to Secretary of State Mike
Pompeo, who was pushing him to return.
On May 28, Taylor met with Pompeo in the
Secretary’s antique-filled office on “Mahogany
Row,” the seventh-floor sanctum of State De-
partment leadership. Taylor “pointed out that
the President did not like Ukraine,” according
to two people who attended the meeting. To
Taylor’s surprise, Pompeo agreed, but said he
would attempt to change Trump’s feelings.
Most important, he assured Taylor that U.S.
policy in Ukraine would remain unchanged:
America would back Ukraine with military and
financial support and resolute opposition to
Moscow. One of Pompeo’s top aides told Tay-
lor, “Look, Bill, call me anytime if you’ve got
questions or problems [and] I can check with
the Secretary,” he testified.
Taylor’s wife Deborah, a biblical scholar, had
serious doubts. She had known her husband’s
idealism to shade, on occasion, into naiveté,
and she had seen other officials unwittinglyFIONA HILL
Trump’s former top Russia adviser
The former top Russia expert on the National Security
Council, Hill witnessed Trump allies applying pressure
on Ukrainian officials to open investigations into
the President’s political opponents in exchange for a
coveted White House meeting.