Trump pushed for Ukraine ambassador's removal for months -- but department said she'd 'done nothing wrong': testimony

The testimony before Congress from former Ambassador Marie L. Yovanovitch revealed Friday that she was removed despite her superiors confessing she'd "done nothing wrong."

The New York Times reported part of her testimony to Congress Friday explained that she said she was “incredulous” that she was being removed “based, as far as I can tell, on unfounded and false claims by people with clearly questionable motives.”

She had given information about her experience at the risk of losing her job, she said. She went on to say that Trump undermining the loyal State Department diplomats will further embolden “bad actors” who will “see how easy it is to use fiction and innuendo to manipulate our system” and serve the interests of adversaries, including countries like Russia.

“Today we see the State Department attacked and hollowed out from within,” she said according to The Times. She said the allegations that she was disloyal to Mr. Trump, circulated by allies of Rudolph W. Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer, were totally “fictitious.”

“I do not know Mr. Giuliani’s motives for attacking me,” she said. But people associated with Mr. Giuliani “may well have believed that their personal financial ambitions were stymied by our anti-corruption policy in Ukraine.”