Page 241 - Dod News Today

Require congressional notice? there would be an extra step that the president would have to take to notify congress. as far as you know was there any notice ever sent out to congress? >> sir, i did express that i believed it would require a notice to congress and that there was no such notice to my knowledge or preparation of such a notice to my knowledge. >> and as far as you know there was never any official rescission or reprogramming of that money? >> no, sir, not to my knowledge. >> instead...

And proffered that perhaps a reprogramming action would be the way to do this but that more research would need to be done. so then after that discussion we had a lower level discussion at my level on the 31st of july. >> let me ask you about that july 31st meeting. based on your conversations with colleagues at the dod at the agency meeting, did you share your understanding of the legal mechanisms that were available at that time? >> yes, sir. >> and what were they? >> i expressed it was my und...

National security community expressed unanimous support for resuming funding in the u.s. national security interests. at the july 26th meeting there was also a discussion how ukrainian anti-corruption efforts were making progress. dod reiterated what we had said in our earlier certification to congress stating sufficient reform including anti-corruption to justify the usai spending. i and others at the interagency meetings felt that the matter was particularly urgent because it takes time to obl...

Reaches the point at which it does not have sufficient time to obligate all the funding by the end of the fiscal year, there were only two ways to discontinue obligation of usai, a president directed recision or dod directed reprogramming action, either of which would need to be notified to congress. i never heard either was being pursued. second wine was in communication with the dod assistance implementing community to try to understand exactly when they would reach the point at which they wou...

Directed the omb to withhold for concerns of ukraine. i served a year in iraq. it was important and i think its something the army always does, as i have seen, 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 want to make sure were not getting charged 10 times as much. we are concerned in general when were delivering funds through the dod, is that c...

The conditions we had requested of them, and congress had appropriate the funds, is that not the case? >> maam, i and my dod colleagues advocated strenuously for the lease of these funds because of their national security importance. >> basically, the entire interests of the department of defense and state department were consistently supportive of releasing the funds. everyone was mystified as to why the funds had been withheld and everyones running around trying to get an answer and youre gett...

Illegal. miss cooper, i want you to help wang through this, since the impound act of 1974, the president has not had the authority on a whim or out of prudence or general skepticism of foreign aid to stop foreign aid. under our constitution its the congress, not the president that controls the pow over the purse, correct? >> yes, sir. >> the security assistance -- the assistance authorized to ukraine was authorized and appropriate rated by the congress, correct? >> so congress is also concerned ...

Which could help us shed light on what the ukrainians knew and when they knew it? >> sir, i have shared with the committee all that i recollect and i have not done an exhaustive investigation so i cant speculate on what else might be available by combing through all of the defense department records which are substantial. did the state department or department of defense ask you for information or did they coordinate with you to get information you had? >> sir, i was told not to destroy anything...

>> i would agree. >> miss cooper, you talked about e-mails that were drawn to your attention. they were sent to your staff, is that correct? >> the e-mails that i discussed this evening were e-mails sent to my staff, that is correct. >> okay. i think first of all, its important to point things out and its not something that you were aware of and it points to a larger issue that the defense department and the state department have refused to comply with a duly issued subpoena to provide with docu...

To say? >> yes, sir. >> you understand that president trump has been skeptical of foreign aid and some of the money as well, is that so? >> i think so. >> thats been fairly consistent. hes done that since before he was elected. ukraine has a long history, and weve talked about that about a thousand times. do you think president trump, i think that was the word, that he would test president trump zelensky prior to providing some of the security assistance. >> president zelensky was new. >> yes. >...