88 Time December 23–30, 2019
They heard Yovanovitch describe being
publicly smeared. They saw Taylor rebut mis-
information with dates and facts preserved in
his notebooks. And they saw Hill dismantle the
notion that Ukraine had meddled in the 2016
election, as a “fictional narrative that has been
perpetrated and propagated by the Russian se-
curity services themselves.” Her commanding
defense of U.S. policy led online fans to print
T-shirts: dr. fiona hill fan Club: fierCe,
foCused, fearless.
As Congress proceeds, they are going
about their lives. In Kyiv, Taylor, Holmes,
Kent and another colleague who spoke out,
Phil Reeker, are attempting to get U.S. policy
back on track, even as Giuliani continues to
meet with conspiracy theorists in Kyiv. Vin-
dman goes to work every day at the Eisen-
hower building. Some, like OMB official
Sandy, felt immense relief at getting through
the ordeal, and just want to return to every-
day business, a former colleague tells TIME.
Others, like Hill and Yovanovitch, began to be
recognized on the street. Hill was surprised
to receive a flood of letters of support from
across the country. Two days after testifying,
Yovanovitch received a standing ovation after
she was recognized at a Washington jazz club.
For the intelligence analyst, life is uneasy.
The President continues to answer bad news
about impeachment by tweeting, “Where’s
the Whistleblower.” Initially, the analyst
planned to testify in person, but as some
Republicans backed the push to unmask
their client, Bakaj and another lawyer on
the case, Mark Zaid, advised against it. The
identity of the analyst remains undisclosed,
but some Trump supporters are issuing
threats. Bakaj and Zaid declined to comment
about the whistle-blower’s safety; both
attorneys say they have themselves received
death threats that are being investigated
by the FBI. The return to work has been a
solace for the analyst. There have been no
signs of retaliation there. Colleagues who
may speculate never mention it and, if
anything, go out of their way to be solicitous.
The taxpayer-funded workplace is, in many
ways, what the Ukraine crisis brought into the
foreground. There are nearly 22 million fed-
eral, state and local government employees in
America, and they provide windows into the
people’s business. Consider the career Inter-
nal Revenue Service official who in July alleged
that a political appointee at the Treasury De-
partment made “inappropriate efforts to in-
fluence” the audit of either Mike Pence’s or
Trump’s tax returns. Or the now former U.S.
Citizenship and Immigration Services asylum
officer who refused to conduct asylum inter-
views under a new policy being challenged in
court as a violation of migrants’ humanitarian
protections.
They are part of a long tradition. In 2007,
Marine Corps official Franz Gayl raised con-
cerns about delivery delays of mine- resistant
tactical vehicles to Iraq. In 1960, FDA drug
reviewer Frances Kelsey saved thousands of
American babies from birth defects by stand-
ing up to pharmaceutical companies to block
the sale of thalidomide in the U.S. And in
1777, 10 American sailors and Marines ac-
cused the Continental Navy’s most power-
ful man, Esek Hopkins, of torturing British
prisoners of war, only to be sued by him for
libel and then defended by the framers of our
democracy.
The idea that government can be dangerous
is encoded in the DNA of America, and so is
the remedy: a tradition of dissent that holds
the powerful to account. In the Trump era,
amid virulent partisanship and calls for
blind loyalty, it can often seem the space for
dissent is shrinking. The fate of the public
servants caught up in the Ukraine saga remains
uncertain. Whatever Congress does with
impeachment, the treatment of those who kept
their oath will answer one essential question,
asked in offices around the country: “What
do I do now?” —With reporting by abigail
abrams and leslie diCksTein/new York
and lissa augusT, brian benneTT, Tessa
berenson, abbY Vesoulis and John
walCoTT/washingTon •MARIE
YOVANOVITCH
Ambassador
A career foreign-service
officer with stints in Somalia
and Russia, Yovanovitch
was the target of a smear
campaign advanced by
Trump and his allies.(^2019) GUARDIANS OF THE YEAR