Former Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch testified she was told to tweet in support of Trump

Jeanine Santucci | USA TODAY

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In newly released transcripts of former Ukraine Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch's deposition in the impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump, she is quoted saying that she was advised to tweet praise of the president.

Yovanovitch believes she was ousted from her role as ambassador by Trump over "false claims" that she was undermining the administration, she said in her testimony.

When she consulted another State Department official, Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, on how to deal with the accusations coming out against her, she was told to "go big or go home," according to her testimony.

She said Sondland, an ally of Trump who was working on foreign policy with Ukraine, told her, "You need to, you know, tweet out there that you support the President, and that all these are lies and everything else."

She added, "I mean, he may not have used the words 'support President Trump,' but he said: 'You know the president. WeIl, maybe you don't know him personally, but you know, you know, the sorts of things that he likes. You know, go out there battling aggressively and, you know, praise him or support him.'"

Yovanovitch added that this was a piece of advice she did not think she could follow.

"I just didn't see that there would be any advantage to publicly taking on a fight with those who were criticizing me in the United States," Yovanovitch said.

In testimony released Tuesday from Sondland's own deposition, he said he did not recall having this conversation with Yovanovitch.

More:Read the latest updates in the impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump

She denied having issued a "do not prosecute" list to a prosecutor in Ukraine, as she was publicly accused of doing in an attempt to prevent the prosecutor from pursuing corruption cases. That accusation was later recanted.

Yovanovitch is quoted as saying she was pulled out of her job after hearing that Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, had been criticizing her. She described "nervousness" at the State Department and the White House about her role.

In a White House summary of the July 25 phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump called Yovanovitch "bad news," and Zelensky voiced agreement about the ex-ambassador.

The transcript of Yovanovitch's deposition was released Monday along with the testimony of former State Department senior adviser Michael McKinley.