ABC News says the network has obtained an audio recording that captures the moment Donald Trump told his associates to "get rid of" Marie Yovanovitch, who was then the US ambassador to Ukraine, before she was ousted amid efforts to pressure the country to investigate his political rivals, a charge at the heart of his impeachment trial.

The news outlet says the recording appears to include the president saying: "Get her out tomorrow. I don't care. Get her out tomorrow. Take her out. OK? Do it."

On the recording, Mr Trump is speaking at a small gathering that also included Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, two business associates of Mr Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani, who urged getting Ms Yovanovitch "out of the way" to advance a conspiracy investigation tying Joe Biden and his son Hunter to corruption in Ukraine.

Mr Fruman and Mr Parnas are facing federal indictments for their alleged role in a campaign finance fraud scheme using foreign money. They have pleaded not guilty.

Mr Parnas has since testified to members of Congress following the president's impeachment in the House, offering additional documents and testimony that further links Mr Trump to efforts to withhold aid to Ukraine in exchange for an investigation into the Bidens as 2020 election campaigns drew closer.

All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment Show all 6 1 /6 All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment Alan Dershowitz Dershowitz is a controversial American lawyer best known for the high-profile clients he has successfully defended. Those clients have included OJ Simpson, Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein. One longtime Harvard Law associated told the New Yorker Dershowitz "revels in taking positions that ultimately are not just controversial but pretty close to indefensible." Getty All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment Ken Starr Starr became a household name in the 1990s as the independent counsel who led the investigation that led to Bill Clinton's impeachment. That investigation began as a look into a real estate scandal known as Whitewater, and eventually led to impeachment after Mr Clinton lied under oath about having an affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. AP All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment Jay Sekulow Sekulow is the president's longtime personal attorney, and, now, personal lawyer in the White House. He has been accused by former Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas of being "in the loop" during the Ukraine scandal. Getty All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment Pam Bondi Bondi is the former attorney general in Florida, and a longtime backer of the president's. She made a name for herself in Florida for taking hyper partisan stances on issues, and her penchant for publicity. She is likely to be a prominent public-facing figure during the trial. AFP/Getty All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment Pat Cipollone Cipollone is the White House counsel, and leading the president's defence team. Getty All the president's lawyers: The team fighting Trump's impeachment Rudy Giuliani While not officially named as one of the president's impeachment lawyers, it is hard to ignore Giuliani's outsized role in this process. The former mayor of New York has been making headlines for months as he defends his client, and for his apparent role in the effort to compel Ukraine to launch the investigation into Joe Biden. We'll see how he figures in the actual trial, which he has said he would like to be a part of. Reuters

ABC says the recording was captured by Mr Fruman during a meeting on 30 April 2018 at the Trump International Hotel in Washington DC. The network reports that a copy of the recording is in the custody of federal prosecutors in New York.

Ms Yovanovitch was called back to the US in April 2019 following a State Department message urging her to leave Ukraine on the next possible plane. She later told congressional committees charged with investigating the president's impeachment that the decision was motivated by people with "questionable motives" with regards to Ukraine within the Trump administration.

The recording contradicts statements by the president and members of his administration that have denied Mr Trump's connection to Mr Fruman and Mr Parnas, despite several photos and videos capturing the men together and posing for photographs.

On the recording, Mr Parnas appears to say, according to ABC: "The biggest problem there, I think where we need to start is we gotta get rid of the ambassador. She's still left over from the Clinton administration ... She's basically walking around telling everybody 'Wait, he's gonna get impeached, just wait.'"

Ms Yovanovitch has served as a US diplomat with the State Department since Ronald Reagan's administration in the 1980s.

Records obtained by Congress from Mr Parnas show dozens of emails, WhatsApp messages and handwritten notes describing Mr Giuliani's attempts to facilitate a White House meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and to remove Ms Yovanovitch from her post.