The view among US national security officials was unanimous: Military aid to Ukraine should not be stopped. However, the White House’s acting chief of staff thought otherwise.
That was the testimony of US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russian, Ukrainian and Eurasian Affairs Laura Cooper, whose deposition as part of a US House of Representatives impeachment inquiry into US President Donald Trump was released on Monday.
“My sense is that all of the senior leaders of the US national security departments and agencies were all unified in their … in their view that this assistance was essential,” Cooper said. “And they were trying to find ways to engage the president on this.”
Cooper’s testimony was among several hundred pages of transcripts released on Monday, along with those of US Department of State officials Catherine Croft and Christopher Anderson.
Cooper told investigators that, in a series of July meetings at the White House, she came to understand that Trump’s acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, was holding up the military aid for the US ally.
“There was just this issue of the White House chief of staff has conveyed that the president has concerns about Ukraine,” Cooper said.
When she and others tried to get an explanation, they found none, she said, adding: “We did not get clarification.”
It was “unusual” to have congressional funds suddenly halted that way, she said, adding that aides raised concerns about the legality of it.
The Pentagon was “concerned” about the holdup of funds and “any signal that we would send to Ukraine about a wavering in our commitment,” Cooper said.
Cooper told investigators that she was visited in August by US Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations Kurt Volker, who told her that there was a “statement” that the Ukraine government could make to get the security money flowing.
She said that it was the first she had heard of the quid pro quo that is now the central question of the impeachment inquiry — the administration’s push for the Ukraine government to investigate Trump’s political rivals.
The House is investigating whether Trump breached his oath of office by pushing Ukraine’s president to investigate possible Democratic rivals in next year’s US presidential election, including former US vice president Joe Biden, while the administration was withholding military funds for the east European ally.
Cooper described the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, saying that it involved a range of items, such as night-vision goggles, vehicles, sniper rifles and medical equipment.
“Security assistance is vital to helping the Ukrainians be able to defend themselves,” Cooper said.
As Ukraine and Georgia are two “frontline states” facing Russian aggression, the US needed to “shore up these countries’ abilities to defend themselves,” she said.
“It’s in our interest to deter Russian aggression elsewhere around the world,” she added.
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