By Marisa Schultz and Bob Fredericks, NY Post, November 15, 2019 |
The Obama administration was so concerned about Hunter Biden’s job on a Ukraine energy giant’s board of directors that it prepped Marie Yovanovitch about the issue before her 2016 Senate confirmation.
In response to questions from Republican counsel Stephen Castor, the ousted former US ambassador to Ukraine testified at the House Intelligence Committee’s second public impeachment hearing on Friday that she had been informed about the lucrative gig the son of Vice President Joe Biden had landed with Burisma.
“As I said, I arrived in August of 2016, several months before the elections and several months before President Trump took office. And it was not a focus of what I was doing in that six-month period,” she said.
Castor pressed her on why she took no action after learning of Hunter Biden’s post, which paid him as much as $50,000 a month despite his lack of relevant experience.
“We — I was aware of it, because as I told you before, in the deposition, there had been a — in terms of the preparation for my Senate confirmation hearings for Ukraine, there was a question about that and a select answer,” Yovanovitch replied.
“So I was aware of it, yes. My understanding from newspaper accounts is that he just recently left, in 2019. I never met him, never talked to him.”
But Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) hammered home the point that the Obama administration was concerned enough over Hunter Biden’s Ukraine job that staffers prepared Yovanovitch to answer them for the confirmation hearing
“The exact quote from your testimony, Ambassador, is, quote, ‘the way the question was phrased in this model Q&A was, what can you tell us about Hunter Biden’s, you know, being named to the board of Burisma?’” Stefanik said.
“So for the millions of Americans watching, President Obama’s own State Department was so concerned about potential conflicts of interest from Hunter Biden’s role at Burisma that they raised it themselves while prepping this wonderful ambassador nominee before her confirmation.
“And yet our Democratic colleagues and the chairman of this committee cry foul when we dare ask that same question the Obama administration was so concerned about. But we will continue asking it.”
Rep. John Ratliffe (R-Texas) asked Yovanovitch what the suggested answer in the Obama administration briefing book was.
“It was something along the lines of, ‘I would refer you to the vice president’s office on that,’” Yovanovitch replied.
Republicans have focused on Hunter’s job with Burisma and charged that his father, as vice president, had Kiev fire a prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, who was investigating the company.
Democrats accused Republicans of distracting from Trump’s call to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in which he asked Zelensky to probe the Bidens and Burisma.
In her opening statement, Yovanovitch said she was stunned that Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani had launched a smear campaign against her based on lies from corrupt Ukrainian officials.
“What continues to amaze me is that they found Americans willing to partner with them and, working together, they apparently succeeded in orchestrating the removal of a US ambassador. How could our system fail like this?” she said.
She also said she was troubled by Trump’s statement in his call to Zelensky that she was going to “go through some things.”
“I mean, shocked, appalled, devastated that the president of the US would talk about any ambassador like that to a foreign head of state. And it was me,” she said.
Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) questioned why Yovanovitch was even called to testify, saying that she was “not a material fact witness” and that her ouster was a “human-resources” issue.
