A recording reviewed by ABC News appears to capture President Donald Trump telling associates he wanted the then-U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch fired while speaking at a small gathering that included Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman -- two former business associates of Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani who have since been indicted in New York.
A voice on the tape reported being Trump is heard saying "Get rid of her!"... "Get her out tomorrow. I don't care. Get her out tomorrow. Take her out. Okay? Do it."
The recording was taken by Igor Fruman at a gathering with him, Lev Parnas, others, and Trump. Other discussions were about his choice of Pompeo to lead the State Department. The recording was captured on April 30, 2018, dinner at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C.
Parnas appears to say: "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," Parnas can be heard telling Trump. "She's basically walking around telling everybody 'Wait, he's gonna get impeached, just wait." (Yovanovitch actually had served in the State Department since the Reagan administration.)
It was not until a year later that Yovanovitch was recalled from her position -- in April 2019. She said the decision was based on “unfounded and false claims by people with clearly questionable motives” that she was disloyal to Trump.
This further corroborates what Lev Parnas told Rachel Maddow on MSNBC about Trump telling someone to “fire her”:
“We all, there was a silence in the room. He responded to him, said Mr. President, we can't do that right now because [Secretary of State Mike] Pompeo hasn't been confirmed yet, that Pompeo is not confirmed yet and we don't have -- this is when [former Secretary of State Rex] Tillerson was gone, but Pompeo was confirmed, so they go, wait until -- so several conversations he mentioned it again.“
Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York have a copy of this recording.