‘Take Her Out’: Recording Reportedly Shows Trump Demanding Ouster of Ambassador in Ukraine

A recording obtained by ABC News reportedly shows that President Donald Trump demanded the removal of U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovtich. The recording was made at a small event on 30 April, 2018. Two now indicted associates of Rudy Giuliani, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, were present.

“Get rid of her!” Trump said of Yovanovitch. “Get her out tomorrow. I don’t care. Get her out tomorrow. Take her out. Okay? Do it.”

Yovanovitch remained in her post for another year.

Trump also says “Pompeo is the best.” Mike Pompeo was appointed Secretary of State the very next day.

Lev Parnas, who has implicated many members of the administration in the plot to dig up dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden, can be heard speaking to Trump about Yovanovitch.

“The biggest problem there, I think where we need to start is we gotta get rid of the ambassador. She’s still left over from the Clinton administration,” Parnas said. “She’s basically walking around telling everybody ‘Wait, he’s gonna get impeached, just wait.”

In reality, Yovanovitch has been at the State Department since the Reagan administration. The content of the recording contradicts Trump’s claim that he didn’t know Lev Parnas despite having photos taken with him. It appears to be yet more evidence that Trump was directly involved in what John Bolton called a ‘drug deal’.

Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York now have the recording.

UPDATE

Since the ABC News report on the recording, it has emerged that the recording was made by Igor Fruman, the indicted Giuliani associate who was present at the event. Lev Parnas’ lawyer Joseph Bondy told the Daily Beast that Fruman had made the recording. The two men were associates.

“Last year, before he was arrested, Mr. Parnas personally heard a recording of his April 30, 2018 dinner with the President and others, made by Mr. Fruman, at which the subject of Ambassador Yovanovitch was discussed,” Bondy said.

“We have hoped that, to the extent this recording still existed, it would be released to Congress for use in the impeachment trial,” he said.