Washington—Representative Eliot L. Engel, Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, today made the following statement regarding the State Department’s failure to meet a deadline for a request by the committee to turn over records related to a potential threat to the security of Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch before she was recalled from her post in Kyiv, Ukraine:

“The State Department’s failure to respond to the committee’s request is unacceptable, particularly as more information has emerged showing that Mr. Parnas apparently schemed directly with President Trump about Ambassador Yovanovitch. I have serious concerns that the security of an American ambassador and an American embassy were compromised. When she was called in the middle of the night and told to get on the next plane out of Ukraine, Ambassador Yovanovitch was warned, ‘this is about your security.’

“I want to know what the State Department knew about it then and what actions have been taken. I’ll use all the tools at my disposal to get the answers I’m seeking from the department.”

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