Marie Yovanovitch worried after her firing that the State Department would not 'survive the betrayals of the Pompeo years'

• Marie Yovanovitch rips former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo apart in her new memoir.
• She wondered after her abrupt firing if the State Department would "survive the betrayals of the Pompeo years."

Marie Yovanovitch, the former US ambassador to Ukraine, rips into former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in her new memoir, writing at one point that "his hypocrisy was galling."

In "Lessons From The Edge," Yovanovitch brutally dissects the contrast between Pompeo's public statements and his inability to stand as a shield between foreign service officers and the Trump White House.

As she reflected on the events that led to her firing, Yovanovitch writes that she wondered how the State Department "would survive the betrayals of the Pompeo years."

And when congressional staffers began contacting her in mid-August 2019 — shortly before Trump's first impeachment inquiry was launched — to discuss "Ukraine-related" matters, Yovanovitch started thinking about hiring a lawyer.

"Although the department lawyers usually tried to watch out for State personnel, their job was to protect State's interests, not mine," the book says. "I was a team player, but the past six months had shown me that I could no longer trust the coach."

Yovanovitch was one of more than a dozen witnesses who testified at then-President Donald Trump's first impeachment inquiry in late 2019. It centered around his efforts to strongarm the Ukrainian government into launching bogus political investigations into the Biden family while withholding vital security assistance and a White House meeting.

Yovanovitch testified that she was abruptly recalled from her ambassadorship because her anti-corruption efforts in Ukraine stood in the way of Rudy Giuliani's efforts to work with corrupt Ukrainians to dig up dirt on the Bidens ahead of the 2020 election.

In her memoir, Yovanovitch writes that it was ironic that Pompeo pledged to work with "uncompromising personal and professional integrity" after being unable to guard her against Giuliani and Trump's smear campaign. She recalls, in particular, the day that she flew back to Washington, DC, from Kyiv after being abruptly fired without cause.

The same day, Pompeo unveiled an "ethos statement" at the State Department "with great fanfare," the memoir says. In addition to promising to work with "uncompromising personal and professional integrity," the statement also promised to "show 'unstinting respect in word and deed for my colleagues,'" Yovanovitch writes.

"Every Foreign Service officer I knew agreed with these points, but coming from Pompeo, the irony was too much to handle," the book says. "We were all tired of Pompeo's talk. We just wanted him to walk the walk. He didn't need to swagger."

'This wasn't about protecting me'

At Trump's 2019 impeachment hearings, Yovanovitch testified that the State Department released a statement praising her integrity and standing by her amid Giuliani's smear campaign against her.

But in Yovanovitch's view, that statement alone wasn't enough because the attacks on her continued for months after. She told lawmakers that she repeatedly appealed to State Department leadership for Pompeo himself — a longtime Trump loyalist and one of his closest allies in the administration — to put out a statement of support for her, but he never did.

In late April 2019, a senior State Department official called Yovanovitch late at night and told her she urgently needed to return to Washington, DC. When Yovanovitch sought clarification and asked why she was being so abruptly ousted, the official did not provide any details and merely said that department leadership could no longer protect her from the White House's attacks on her.

In the days that followed, Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan told Yovanovitch there had been a "strong and concerted campaign" against her for almost a year, the book says. "Every time Trump called, his concern was greater, and the concern never went back down to zero. This time the secretary had been unable to continue to protect me, so they had removed me from Ukraine to foreclose the possibility that I would be fired by tweet like Secretary of State [Rex] Tillerson."

But Yovanovitch casts doubt on this justification, adding that it was "ridiculously transparent." She goes on to write that Pompeo's real concern was the public relations nightmare and questions from lawmakers that would come if Trump removed a sitting ambassador via tweet. "This wasn't about protecting me, it was about Pompeo protecting himself and the president from charges of diplomatic malpractice," Yovanovitch writes.

And when the impeachment inquiry into Trump's Ukraine dealings was fully underway in late 2019, Yovanovitch writes that she felt compelled to testify, even though she did not believe that her firing was at the heart of Trump's efforts to condition foreign aid and a White House meeting on Ukraine's president announcing political investigations into the Bidens.

She also excoriates Pompeo's attempts to stonewall Congress' inquiry by instructing State Department officials and foreign service officers not to comply with the House Intelligence Committee's requests for documents and testimony.

When he served as a congressman in the House of Representatives, Pompeo had "embraced a very different view about the role of Congress," the book says. "This was the same man who had zealously participated in the congressional investigation of the tragic death of four Americans at the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya, demanding that the secretary of state herself talk to Congress."

"His hypocrisy was galling," Yovanovitch writes.

Pompeo, for his part, said in early 2020 that he had "defended every State Department official."

"I've defended every single person on this team," Pompeo told NPR on January 24, 2020. "I've done what's right for every single person on this team."

Representatives for Pompeo did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.