Former US ambassador Yovanovitch lands a book deal: report

Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine who testified in front of the House Intelligence Committee’s impeachment hearings regarding President Trump’s dealings in Ukraine, signed a book deal on Friday, according to The Associated Press.

Yovanovitch, who was recalled from her post in May, was one of the central figures in the impeachment inquiry that began late last year.

House impeachment committees investigated a claim from a whistleblower that alleged that during a July 25 call, the president used nearly $400 million in U.S. military aid to pressure Ukraine to launch an investigation into his political rival, chiefly former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden. 

Trump was later impeached in the House, and ultimately acquitted in the Senate impeachment trial. 

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is poised to publish Yovanovitch’s currently untitled memoir. According to the AP, the book will chronicle her work as a career diplomat, including her work in Kyiv, then “finally back to Washington, D.C. — where, to her dismay, she found a political system beset by many of the same challenges she had spent her career combating overseas.”

“Yovanovitch’s book will deliver pointed reflections on the issues confronting America today, and thoughts on how we can shore up our democracy,” Houghton Mifflin Harcourt said in an announcement obtained by the AP.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt did not immediately respond to an inquiry from The Hill. 

Amid the Senate impeachment trial that followed the House hearings, Lev Parnas, an indicted associate of Rudy Giuliani, provided evidence to the Intelligence committee, including a video of Trump appearing to call for Yovanovitch’s ouster after Parnas suggested that she supported Trump’s impeachment. 

Yovanovitch described her treatment by the president as a “smear campaign” during her congressional testimony.

“This is not a time to undercut our diplomats,” Yovanovitch told the House Intelligence Committee. ”What I’d like to say is, while I obviously don’t dispute that the president has the right to withdraw an ambassador at any time, for any reason, but what I do wonder is, why it was necessary to smear my reputation.”

In the spring of 2019, Yovanovitch joined Georgetown University’s Institute for the Study of Diplomacy as a fellow, where she has previously been a dean. 

In late January, Yovanovitch retired from the State Department.

Most recently, Yovanovitch made remarks about the state of American foreign diplomacy at an event hosted by Georgetown University saying, “Right now, the State Department is in trouble.” 

“Senior leaders lack policy vision, moral clarity, leadership,” she said. “The policy process has been replaced by decisions emanating from the top with little discussion, vacancies go unfilled and our officers are increasingly wondering whether it is safe to express concerns about policies even behind closed doors.”