During a private dinner that was secretly recorded President Donald Trump appears to have ordered the firing of his Ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, a highly-regarded veteran diplomat who began working for the U.S. Foreign Service in 1986, during the Reagan administration.
“Get rid of her!” a voice that appears to be President Trump’s is heard saying, ABC News reports. “Get her out tomorrow. I don’t care. Get her out tomorrow. Take her out. Okay? Do it.”
ABC says it has reviewed the recording, which was “made during an intimate April 30, 2018 dinner at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C.”
Also attending that “small gathering” were Rudy Giuliani’s henchmen, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, who have since been indicted.
“The recording appears to contradict statements by President Trump and support the narrative that has been offered by Parnas during broadcast interviews in recent days,” ABC adds. Trump has repeatedly claimed he does not know and has never met Parnas.
Parnas has said that Trump and Attorney General Bill Barr were fully aware of his actions in the Ukraine extortion scandal.
Federal prosecutors at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the powerful Southern District of New York (SDNY) have been given a copy of the recording.
Read the entire report here.