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Pentagon official (Laura Cooper) handling Ukraine and Russia appears in impeachment inquiry
Source: Reuters
POLITICS OCTOBER 23, 2019 / 6:21 AM / UPDATED 24 MINUTES AGO
Pentagon official handling Ukraine and Russia appears in impeachment inquiry
Patricia Zengerle, Richard Cowan
6 MIN READ
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A senior Pentagon official who oversees U.S. defense policy on Ukraine and Russia arrived on Wednesday for the latest testimony in the Democratic-led U.S. House of Representatives inquiry against Republican President Donald Trump.
Laura Cooper, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia, is expected to face questions about Trump’s decision this year to withhold $391 million in security assistance to Ukraine approved by Congress to help deal with Russia-backed separatists in the eastern part of the country. She arrived at the U.S. Capitol, accompanied by security personnel, for her closed-door testimony.
In private testimony on Tuesday before the three House committees leading the inquiry, William Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, said Trump had made the aid contingent on Ukraine publicly announcing it would conduct politically motivated investigations the president demanded.
Taylor said he was told by Gordon Sondland, the U.S. envoy to the European Union, that Trump had linked the aid’s release to public declarations by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that he would investigate Joe Biden, his son Hunter Biden’s tenure on the board of a Ukrainian energy company called Burisma, and a debunked conspiracy theory that Ukraine, and not Russia, meddled in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
-snip-
Pentagon official handling Ukraine and Russia appears in impeachment inquiry
Patricia Zengerle, Richard Cowan
6 MIN READ
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A senior Pentagon official who oversees U.S. defense policy on Ukraine and Russia arrived on Wednesday for the latest testimony in the Democratic-led U.S. House of Representatives inquiry against Republican President Donald Trump.
Laura Cooper, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia, is expected to face questions about Trump’s decision this year to withhold $391 million in security assistance to Ukraine approved by Congress to help deal with Russia-backed separatists in the eastern part of the country. She arrived at the U.S. Capitol, accompanied by security personnel, for her closed-door testimony.
In private testimony on Tuesday before the three House committees leading the inquiry, William Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, said Trump had made the aid contingent on Ukraine publicly announcing it would conduct politically motivated investigations the president demanded.
Taylor said he was told by Gordon Sondland, the U.S. envoy to the European Union, that Trump had linked the aid’s release to public declarations by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that he would investigate Joe Biden, his son Hunter Biden’s tenure on the board of a Ukrainian energy company called Burisma, and a debunked conspiracy theory that Ukraine, and not Russia, meddled in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-whistleblower/pentagon-official-handling-ukraine-and-russia-appears-in-impeachment-inquiry-idUSKBN1X2186