Marie Yovanovich (Credit: Greg Nash/The Hill)
“Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, a central figure in the House impeachment of President Trump, on Thursday warned the public against allowing the U.S. to become a country that silences those who stand up to the government.
In an op-ed published in The Washington Post, Yovanovitch recalled how she and other civil servants spoke out last year when they believed the Trump administration was committing wrongdoing in its dealings with Ukraine.
She added that they also testified before Congress because they believed that speaking up about impropriety is the “American way.”
“I have seen dictatorships around the world, where blind obedience is the norm and truth-tellers are threatened with punishment or death,” Yovanovitch wrote. “We must not allow the United States to become a country where standing up to our government is a dangerous act. ”
(…) Yovanovitch said that it has been “shocking” to see the “criticism, lies and malicious conspiracies that have preceded and followed my public testimony.” But she asserted that she had no “regrets” about testifying before Congress, noting that “I did — we did — what our conscience called us to do.”
“We did what the gift of U.S. citizenship requires us to do,” she said.” (Read more: The Hill, 2/07/2020) (Archive)