Free Republic

The Trump administration has recalled the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine abruptly and ahead of her scheduled departure, after she became a target of political attacks by conservative media outlets and Donald Trump Jr. Democrats see her early departure under pressure as the unfair targeting of a career Foreign Service officer by Team Trump. According to an internal State Department management notice that I obtained, U.S. Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch will leave her post permanently on May 20, with no replacement in place and no nominations to fill that position. The House Democratic leadership thinks that Yovanovitch’s early departure under pressure is...

Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko told Hill.TV's John Solomon in an interview that aired Wednesday that U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch gave him a do not prosecute list during their first meeting. “Unfortunately, from the first meeting with the U.S. ambassador in Kiev, [Yovanovitch] gave me a list of people whom we should not prosecute,” Lutsenko, who took his post in 2016, told Hill.TV last week. “My response of that is it is inadmissible. Nobody in this country, neither our president nor our parliament nor our ambassador, will stop me from prosecuting whether there is a crime,” he continued....

Kelly Knight Craft, the woman who will replace Nikki Haley, has been confirmed as the next ambassador to the United Nations. The full Senate voted 56-34 Wednesday night after Craft was voted out of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee 15-7 earlier in July. Congratulations to Kelly Knight Craft of #Kentucky on her confirmation as United Nations Ambassador. After having served so admirably as Ambassador to Canada, & having done an outstanding job no matter how difficult the task, Kelly will be fantastic at the United Nations. Winner!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 1, 2019 Republican Senator Marco Rubio is also...

A State Department official who was awaiting confirmation to be U.S. Ambassador to Albania communicated with the former British spy Christopher Steele and supplied information to a senior DOJ official after and before the 2016 presidential election. Former State Department Deputy Assistant Secretary Kathleen Ann Kavalec’s nomination was withdrawn recently by President Trump, according to a Senior White House official who spoke to SaraACarter.com. Kavalec was awaiting to be confirmed as Ambassador to Albania, but information surfaced that she had personally met and was in communication with Steele before and after the 2016 presidential election. Kavalec, a long time State...

While the revelation of a secret meeting involving Robert Mueller in the delivery of uranium to the Russians, by itself, does not prove anything of a criminal or unethical nature, it does raise questions that merit an investigation. After all, when Mueller was FBI director under the Obama administration, he was trusted enough by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to carry out this mission. If it was a diplomatic mission, why was the FBI director involved? And if it was a law enforcement mission, why was Clinton involved?___________________________________________________ The latest release late last week by Julian Assange at WikiLeaks of...

Nikki Haley has been one of the greatest and most courageous UN ambassadors that the United States has ever had President Trump confirmed on Tuesday that U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley is resigning from that post and leaving the Trump administration at the end of this year. He praised Ambassador Haley as a “very special” person who had helped him solve “a lot of problems.” The reason for Ambassador Haley’s resignation remains unclear as of the writing of this article. However, President Trump said that she had told him six months ago that she might want to...

Without question, Hutchison is not merely suggesting but stating plainly that U.S. policy is that barring Russia voluntarily dismantling its intermediate-range systems will result in a military strike at some point by the U.S. and, we assume, NATO since she’s speaking as a representative of the alliance. In the aftermath of the interview, there hasn’t been any response from the White House or Pentagon refuting Amb. Hutchison’s statement. That may eventually come, especially if media reports pick up and publicize that portion of the interview. If that happens, it’s possible the White House ‘clarifies’ it in a way to downplay...

A convoy carrying the U.S. ambassador to Bangladesh was attacked by armed men in the capital city of Dhaka on Saturday evening. Although Ambassador Marcia Bernicat and her team escaped without injuries, two vehicles were damaged in the violence, according to the Dhaka Tribune. The U.S. embassy thanked local police for their quick response to stop the attackers. The attack came as thousands of students protested in the country, calling for safer roads. Demonstrations have turned violent. The BBC reported that at least 50 people had been injured on Saturday, and Agence France Presse (AFP) reported put the number at...

U.S. Ambassador to Turkey John Bass criticized the American fight against terrorism during a July Fourth celebration hosted by the U.S. consulate in Istanbul, claiming that an "overly broad" definition of terrorism has hampered U.S. efforts to combat extremists and eroded international confidence in America. Bass, a career foreign service officer who was appointed by former President Barack Obama in 2014, urged Turkey to "avoid making the mistakes the U.S. made" in its fight against radical terrorists, telling those in attendance at an Independence Day reception "that rushing to justice or making an overly broad definition of terrorism can erode...

"""Well Lookie Here=> Russian Lawyer Veselnitskaya is Pictured with Obama Ambassador to Russia – 8 Days After Trump Jr. Mtg."""" More information leaked out today on Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya. Veselnitskaya told NBC News on Monday she was not with the Kremlin as was reported by The New York Times. She confirmed her meeting with Donald Trump Jr. was about Russian adoptions in the US. The law firm where Veselnitskaya is listed as managing partner, Kamerton Consulting, is based in a Moscow suburb and does not even have a website. A staff member at Kamerton told The Associated Press Veselnitskaya...

The U.S. ambassador to Qatar, an Obama administration holdover whose family donated hundreds of thousands to the Obama campaign, signaled her distaste for working under President Donald Trump, raising questions about her commitment to the new administration. Dana Shell Smith, the U.S. ambassador for Qatar who was appointed by former President Barack Obama, took to Twitter last week to express her frustration at Trump's administration, which has been battling negative headlines over a plethora of foreign and domestic issues. "The problem is that the Obama administration left holdovers all over the government, so you get rid of one Obama loyalist...

The U.S. Ambassador to Qatar took a direct swipe at President Trump, seemingly over his firing of FBI Director James Comey. “Increasingly difficult to wake up overseas to news from home, knowing I will spend today explaining our democracy and institutions,” Dana Shell Smith wrote on Twitter late Tuesday. Trump had fired Comey just hours earlier.(TWEET-AT-LINK) Smith, a career diplomat, was nominated to the ambassadorship in 2014 and confirmed the same year. Federal Election Commission records show she donated $1,000 on eight separate occasions to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. She also recently expressed support for former Acting Attorney General...

The new US Ambassador to Israel under President Donald Trump will reside and work in Jerusalem, even if the embassy is still officially in Tel Aviv. David Friedman is yet to receive Senate approval for his new posting, but has already confirmed that he’ll spend most of his time in Israel’s real capital.

Sources close to Trump’s White House transition process have revealed that the president-elect is seriously considering Richard Grenell to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. If selected, Grenell would enter the position with plentiful experience under his belt. He was the longest serving U.S. spokesman to the United Nations under the George W. Bush administration. Grenell also served as Mitt Romney’s foreign policy adviser during the 2012 election. Grenell is also openly gay. If chosen, Grenell would be the first openly-gay individual to serve a Cabinet-level foreign policy post – making his appointment historical. His candidacy alone showcases Trump's...

June 12, 2013 State Department Whistleblower, a Career Foreign Service Officer, Seeks Congressional Protection After State Threatens Her Kids Bryan Preston The State Department whistleblower is Aurelia Fedenisn. She worked in the department’s inspector general’s office until her retirement in December 2012. According to USA Today, she has sought protection as an official whistleblower after the State Department directly threatened her, once at her home. It threatened her with criminal charges when she turned over documents to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) showing evidence that the department had watered down her report, in which she alleged that the department at the...

It’s hard to determine which is more surprising: the British aching to send troops and materiel to aid the Confederacy during the Civil War or that the first “Special Relationship” was between the U.S. and Russia against the British. Both of these facts are true and for the latter negating the former, we can thank one Cassius Marcellus Clay. Clay was more than just a namesake for the greatest boxer of all time. He was also a politician, representative, officer in the Mexican War and Civil War, abolitionist, and ambassador with a pedigree in badassery. This man once frightened an...

Egypt summoned the U.S. ambassador in Cairo to show displeasure at Muslim Brotherhood figures coming to Washington for a private conference, sources familiar with the matter said on Monday. One source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said U.S. officials did not intend to meet the group although they had met some Brotherhood figures that came to Washington in January. The tensions reflect a clash between U.S. diplomats' desire to deal with the whole political spectrum in Egypt and a fear of alienating Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi who, as army chief, toppled a Muslim Brotherhood-led government in 2013. The...

WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland has summoned the United States' ambassador in Warsaw over an article written by a top U.S. intelligence official on Poland's alleged responsibility for the Holocaust during World War Two, a foreign ministry spokesman said on Sunday. The article by FBI director James Comey, published in the Washington Post earlier this week, prompted an outcry in Poland and drew condemnation in the media and from politicians. A foreign ministry spokesman said on his Twitter account that the U.S. ambassador would be summoned to the ministry over the article, and that Poland would demand an apology. Comey said...

As we near the glorious day when Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., calls former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton before the House Select Committee on Benghazi for a grilling session that she’ll never be able to prepare enough for, we’re reminded of when Gowdy left a room full of journalists stunned and speechless — an impressive feat. In a typical Washington, D.C., press conference, a couple dozen journalists and media types crowd into a small room and fire off a barrage of questions toward the person at the podium — but that’s not how it works when Gowdy’s behind the wheel. Gowdy...

Who really is Mark W. Lippert? OBAMA used Senate Office to influence Kenyan Presidential Elections...