of a tremendous smear campaign. we want to know how deep that went. >> reporter: under pressure from the president's allies, yovanovitch says she sought advice from ambassador to the european union gordon sondland. his suggestion go big or go home. you need to tweet out there you support the president. yovanovitch at the center of michael mckinley's testimony, the former top aide to secretary of state mike pompeo explaining why he abruptly resigned days before his deposition. he says the state department did not support career civil servants caught up in the inquiry, and he was troubled by what appears to be the utilization of our ambassadors overseas to advance domestic political objectives. mckinley says he repeatedly raised concerns according to the transcript of his testimony and asked pompeo to publicly state his support for yovanovitch. that directly contradicts pompeo's account in an interview last month. >> i never heard him say a