 To President Donald Trump, the diplomat representing the U.S. in Ukraine was "bad news" — a supposedly rogue ambassador with a political bias against him.
But to those who know Marie Yovanovitch — the former envoy to Kyiv who is scheduled to testify before the House this week as Democrats intensify their impeachment inquiry — that characterization could not be more off-base.
Yovanovitch, a State Department employee for 33 years who also led U.S. embassies in Kyrgyzstan and Armenia, is well known in diplomatic circles for her measured demeanor and diligence in representing both Republican and Democratic administrations, former colleagues said.
She is "a top-notch diplomat, careful, meticulous, whip smart," and unlikely to have badmouthed Trump, either to Ukrainian officials or her colleagues, said John Herbst, a predecessor as ambassador in Ukraine who worked alongside Yovanovitch there in the early 2000s.
That reputation is all but impossible to square with what some view as a smear campaign, capped by the Trump administration's removal of Yovanovitch from her post in May.
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