Ex-Envoy to Ukraine ‘Devastated’ as Trump Vilified Her

Representative Devin Nunes of California, the ranking Republican on the committee, called her removal an “employment disagreement.” Other Republicans argued that her removal did not change American policy, that her career was not permanently damaged and that the president had well-founded reasons to be concerned about corruption in Ukraine.

Still, the session was tense at times, as Republicans — who have for weeks accused Mr. Schiff of running roughshod over them — made parliamentary points that the chairman, banging his gavel, repeatedly ruled out of order. And Ms. Yovanovitch, soft-spoken and calm, showed little hesitation in challenging her Republican interrogators.

“I do wonder why it was necessary to smear my reputation,” she said at one point, addressing Representative Brad Wenstrup, Republican of Ohio, noting that Mr. Trump had the authority to remove her at will.

Mr. Wenstrup cut her off, saying, “Well I wasn’t asking you about that, so thank you very much, ma’am.”

Ms. Yovanovitch’s testimony did not go precisely to the heart of the Democrats’ case against Mr. Trump; she had left Ukraine by the time Mr. Trump asked Mr. Zelensky in a phone call on July 25 to “do us a favor” and look into Mr. Biden and his son Hunter Biden. But Democrats argued that there was a direct line between Ms. Yovanovitch’s ouster and Mr. Trump’s Ukraine pressure campaign.

Mr. Trump, they noted, brought up Ms. Yovanovitch himself during the call — shortly after he praised a corrupt Ukrainian prosecutor who had balked at her efforts to root out corruption, and shortly before he raised the Bidens. The president told Mr. Zelensky that she was “bad news,” and said that she was going to “go through some things,” a comment that Ms. Yovanovitch told the committee had taken her breath away when she read a reconstructed transcript of the call.

She testified that the color drained from her face and that she was “shocked, appalled, devastated that the president of the United States would talk about any ambassador like that to a foreign head of state — and it was me. I mean, I couldn’t believe it.”