Evangelical groups lobbied Pompeo to fire Yovanovitch in 2018

Dozens of evangelical Christian organizations lobbied the State Department to fire Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, in 2018 over her support for an LGBT pride parade in Kyiv.

BuzzFeed News reported Wednesday that a letter sent by 39 organizations to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo cited Yovanovitch’s support for an LGBT parade that year in downtown Kyiv, which the groups said undermined President Trump’s “conservative policy for the USA and its foreign policy.” 

The groups also made known their objection to police actions after law enforcement allegedly dispersed and detained some religious protesters opposed to the event.

“There is no justification for the fact that, after brutal beatings and dispersal of Christians Marie Yovanovitch — the U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine walked in the front rows of the ‘march of dignity’ and proudly held the American flag of the great nation of God,” the groups wrote.

“We, the public and religious organizations of Ukraine, demand the Congress and the U.S. authorities to recall the U.S. Ambassador and give the appropriate assessment of her actions that openly discredit President Trump,” the letter continued.

The effort was led by a U.S.-based evangelical pastor, Dale Armstrong, who provided the letter to BuzzFeed and told the news outlet that his church previously led prayers asking for Yovanovitch to be removed.

Yovanovitch eventually left the post last year.

The former ambassador played a key role in the House impeachment inquiry into Trump’s dealings with Ukraine that began late last year. Yovanovitch served as a witness during closed and public hearings describing her ouster and American policy in the region.

The diplomat was removed from her post in 2019 and eventually retired from the State Department. She was removed after she insisted that Rudy Giuliani’s request for investigations into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden go through official channels.