Josh Roberts/Reuters
- Rep. Eliot Engel in a statement on Wednesday said John Bolton in September expressed concerns to him about the recall of Marie Yovanovitch.
- Yovanovitch, the former US ambassador to Ukraine, was abruptly pulled from her diplomatic post after the president's personal lawyer led what she and other officials have described as a smear campaign against her.
- In a September phone call, shortly after Bolton was dismissed from the Trump administration, Engel said the former national security adviser "strongly implied that something improper had occurred around her removal."
- Democrats are currently working to see that Bolton testifies in President Donald Trump's Senate impeachment trial.
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A top House Democrat on Wednesday said that John Bolton in a September phone call "strongly implied that something improper" had occurred in the recall of former US ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch.
Rep. Eliot Engel of New York, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Bolton raised concerns about what happened to Yovanovitch "unprompted" during the conversation.
The call took place on September 23, according to Engel, not long after Bolton was dismissed as President Donald Trump's national security adviser.
"I've known Ambassador Bolton for years; we have a cordial and respectful relationship and I wanted to thank him for his service," Engel said in a statement. "I also wanted to ask if he would talk to the Foreign Affairs Committee, as former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson did, to aid our general oversight efforts of U.S. foreign policy."
"On that call, Ambassador Bolton suggested to me-unprompted-that the committee look into the recall of Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch," Engel said. "He strongly implied that something improper had occurred around her removal as our top diplomat in Kyiv."
Bolton's attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.
This article will continue to be updated.