Ex-Ambassador to Ukraine Leaves State Department

Marie Yovanovitch, who was forced out as US ambassador to Ukraine and became a witness in the House impeachment inquiry, has retired from the State Department. A career diplomat, she was in the foreign service for 33 years, in posts under Democratic and Republican presidents, NPR reports. After being ousted in May, Yovanovitch became a senior State Department fellow at Georgetown University. She said in her testimony in November that she wasn't enjoying being in the impeachment spotlight, per the Hill. "It's been a difficult time. I mean, I'm a private person," Yovanovitch said. "I don't want to put all that out there, but it's been a very, very difficult time."

She was accused of being disloyal to President Trump, an accusation she denied, and removed as ambassador last May. Yovanovitch had told Rudy Giuliani, Trump's personal lawyer, that a request that the Ukraine government investigate Joe Biden and his son Hunter could not go through an "irregular channel," involving private business doings, between the US and Ukraine. Giuliani denied recommending Yovanovitch be fired, but evidence later released by the House supported her account. Three other officials involved in the impeachment inquiry have since left the State Department: Kurt Volker, Michael McKinley, and William Taylor. (More Marie Yovanovitch stories.)