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The former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine whose abrupt ouster in May has become a topic of interest for House impeachment investigators said Friday that her departure came as a direct result of pressure President Trump placed on the State Department to remove her, according to her prepared remarks before Congress obtained by The Washington Post.

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Yovanovitch told lawmakers that she was forced to leave Kyiv on "the next plane" this spring and subsequently removed from her post, with the State Department's No. 2 official telling her that, though she had done nothing wrong, the president had lost confidence in her and the State Department had been under significant pressure to remove her since the summer of 2018, The Washington Post reported.

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In explaining her departure, she acknowledged months of criticisms by Trump's personal attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani, who had accused her of privately badmouthing the president and seeking to protect the interests of former vice president Joe Biden and his son who served on the board of a Ukrainian energy company.

Yovanovitch denied those allegations and said she was "incredulous" that her superiors decided to remove her based on "unfounded and false claims by people with clearly questionable motives."