Newly-released State Department documents suggest that former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch knew more about Burisma, the corrupt company tied to Hunter Biden, than she told the House impeachment inquiry last year.
In November 2019, Yovanovitch testified in a public hearing before the House Intelligence Committee that she first learned about Burisma when she was being briefed for her confirmation hearings in 2016, and that the company was “not a focus” when she arrived at post.
In October, in her closed-door deposition, Yovanovitch told the committee — under oath — that she did not recall being briefed by embassy staff about Burisma, and that much of what she had learned came from “press reports.”
But investigative reporter John Solomon reported Wednesday that Yovanovitch had discussed the company with staff:
[N]ewly unearthed State Department memos obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show Yovanovitch’s embassy in Kiev, including the ambassador herself, was engaged in several discussions and meetings about Burisma as the gas firm scrambled during the 2016 election and transition to settle a long-running corruption investigation and polish its image before President Trump took office.
Yovanovitch, for instance, was specifically warned in an email by her top deputy in September 2016 — three years before her testimony — that Burisma had hired an American firm with deep Democratic connections called Blue Star Strategies to “rehabilitate the reputation” of the Ukrainian gas firm and that it had placed “Hunter Biden on its board,” the memos show.
She also met directly with a representative for Burisma in her embassy office, less than 45 days before Trump took office, a contact she did not mention during her impeachment deposition.
The discussions about Burisma inside Yovanovitch’s embassy were so extensive, in fact, that they filled more than 160 pages of emails, memos and correspondence in fall 2016 alone, according to the State Department records obtained under FOIA by the conservative group Citizens United.
Read Solomon’s full report here.
Following that report, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, wrote to the State Department requesting it provide all documents from the Obama administration relating to Bursima, without redactions.
Yovanovitch was portrayed sympathetically by Democrats during the impeachment inquiry and trial as a victim of President Donald Trump and his attorney, Rudy Giuliani, who they claimed smeared her.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). His new book, RED NOVEMBER, is available for pre-order. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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