Trump impeachment: President told associates to 'get rid' of Ukraine ambassador, tapes reportedly reveal
A tape has reportedly surfaced where Donald Trump can be heard ordering the firing of his then Ukraine ambassador Marie Yovanovitch - a central controversy of the impeachment saga.
A voice sounding like the US president can be heard saying “get rid of her!” according to ABC News, which said it had listened to the tape.
The broadcaster quoted Mr Trump saying: “Get her out tomorrow. I don't care. Get her out tomorrow. Take her out. Okay? Do it."
The tape has not been made public and The Daily Telegraph was unable to independently verify its existence.
The comments are controversial because they appear to show Mr Trump’s direct involvement in the removal of Ms Yovanovitch, a key figure in the impeachment scandal.
Ms Yovanovitch has testified that she was forced out of her post by Trump loyalists who were smearing her by claiming she was working against the president.
It has since been claimed that the president’s supporters saw the then ambassador as a potential block to the investigation into Democrat Joe Biden that Mr Trump was seeking.
The meeting is said to have taken place at April 30 2018 over dinner at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC. Ms Yovanovitch was eventually fired a year later.
The recording is also noteworthy because Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, two former associates of the president’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani, were reportedly in attendance.
Both men have since been indicted.
Mr Trump has denied knowing Parnas, who helped Mr Giuliani investigate Mr Biden’s involvement in Ukraine and in recent weeks has given a string of high profile interviews.
The Bidens have always denied any wrongdoing.
News of the tape triggered a flurry of US media headlines on Friday, offering a late twist in the Senate trial over whether to remove Mr Trump from office for the Ukraine scandal.
One of the key issues being debated is the degree of first hand evidence on the president, with his lawyers dismissing many of the claims against him as “hearsay”.
ABC news reported that a copy of the recording is now in the custody of federal prosecutors in New York's Southern District, who declined to comment.
It is not the first time the existence of a controversial tape has emerged at a critical political moment for Mr Trump.
Near the end of the 2016 presidential campaign Mr Trump’s bid was thrown into chaos when a tape from the TV show Access Hollywood saw him describing assaulting women.
High profile supporters abandoned him over the footage and Mr Trump was under pressure to quit.
Instead he called the comments “locker room talk”, staying in the race and going on to win.
