Page 35 - Combating Corruption News Today

Approximates my understanding of the provision of the impoundment control act. >> i will go with that, thank you very much. >> mr. conaway. as paul harvey said, heres the rest of the story. certain issues with respect to the certification. dod certification was not corruption writ large through the entire country of ukraine. it was focused on defense institutional reforms and combat capability. >> that is correct. >> ms. cooper, thank you for being here. i appreciate it. my colleagues seem to le...

Directed the office of management and budget to withhold funds because of concerns about corruption in ukraine. you are coming from the dod side. i served a year in iraq and it was important and i think its something that the army always does, as i have seen, that we dont want to deliver aid or assistance if its going to some corrupt, or being delivered in a corrupt way. if we are going to build a medical treatment facility for the iraqis, we want to make sure we are not getting charged ten time...

Shortly before entering this hearing room, but it sounds accurate, yes. >> appreciate that. >> ambassador, youre aware of no connection between the pause in aid in exchange for any kind of investigation, is that correct? >> im sorry, i missed a key word. can you repeat the question? >> youre not aware of any connection between the pause in aid in exchange for some kind of investigation being announced or done by ukraine, is that correct? >> right. >> and youre not aware of secretary pompeo havin...

Illegal, because miss cooper, and i want you to help us walk through this. since the control act of 1974, the president has not had the authority to, on a whim or out of prudence, or as my republican colleagues say as a general skepticism of foreign aid to stop foreign aid. under our constitution its the congress not the president that controls the power of the purse. correct? >> yes, sir. >> and the security assistance -- the assistance that was authorized to ukraine was authorized and appropri...

I heard the president directed the office of management and budget to hold funds because of his concerns about corruption in ukraine. and, you know, you come from the dod side here. i served a year in iraq. and it was important, and i think its something that the army always does, as i have seen, that we dont want to deliver aid or assistance if its going to some corrupt, or being delivered in some corrupt way. in other words if were going to build a medical treatment facility for the iraqis, we...

Had requested of them, and congress had appropriated the funds. is that not the case? >> maam, i, and my dod colleagues, advocated strenuously for the release of these funds because of their national security importance. >> so, basically, the entire interest of the department of defense and state department were consistently supportive of releasing the funds. everyone was mystified as to why the funds were withheld, and everyone is running around trying to get an answer and youre getting kind of...

>> mr. hi mechmes? >> thank you to our witnesses. im delighted to follow mr. ratcliffe. he just perfectly summarized the defense that my republican colleagues are mounting of this behavior, and the defense goes like this. the president is acting on some deep, historical concern, apparently invisible concern, about corruption and that because hes so concerned about corruption in ukraine, hes holding up aid and being prudent and judicious. the first part of that is pretty easy to dispose of, becau...

>> thank you. >> defense industry and it did reference the importance of civilian control of the military, which relates more broadly to -- >> would argue that fixes corruption throughout the rest of the country. miss cooper, maybe you can shed light on specific details. we talked about the security assistance program, 250 million. some would argue that because the pause, people died in august because of the pause. can you help us understand exactly what obligated and were there things that were...

>> sir, i am not a lawyer, but that approximates my understanding of the provision of the impoundment control. >> ill go with that approximates. thank you. i yield back the balance of my time. >> as paul harvey said, here is the rest of the story. my colleague failed to put certain issues with respect to the certification. dod certification was not corrupt large throughout ukraine but on institution reforms and combat capability. is that correct, miss cooper? >> thats correct, sir. >> thank you ...

This brings me to the topic of todays proceedings. i would like to recap my recollection of the timeline in which these events played out. i testified about all of this at length in my deposition. in july, i became aware of a hold being placed on obligation of the state departments foreign military financing or fmf, and dods usai funds in a series of interagency meetings, i heard that the president had directed the office of management and budget to hold the funds because of his concerns about c...