Page 243 - Dod News Today

White house was withholding security aid to ukraine during conversations with ambassador taylor on july 18th, 2019. however, as i testified before, i was never able to obtain a clearance regarding the specific reason for the hold, whether it was bureaucratic that in nature, which often happens or indicated concern in the interagency process. i never participated in any of the subsequent dod or dos review meetings that others have described so i cant speak to what was discussed in those meetings....

Department of defense works with the state department and other agencies to establish anti-corruption benchmarks and determine whether ukraine has sufficiently met those benchmarks, correct? >> thats correct. that provision pertains to the ukraine security assistance initiative. >> thats a legally specified process. thats not the president in the oval office manifesting a general skepticism of foreign aid. right? >> it is a congressionally mandated process, yes, sir. >> did that process take pla...

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 a dod directed reprogramming action. either of which would need to be notified to congress. i never heard that either was being pursued. second, i was in communication with the dod security assistance implementing community to try to understand exactly when they would reach the point at ...

26th. i was first informed that the they were going to get the military aid? white house was withholding >> i likely did. security aid to ukraine during >> >> mr. morrison and conversations with ambassador taylor on july 18th, 2019. ambassador taylor have also relayed a conversation you had with the president following the however, as i testified before, warsaw meeting in which the i was never able to obtain a president relayed to you that clear answer regarding the there was no quid pro quo, bu...

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...

Community expressed unanimous support for resuming the funding in the u.s. national security interest. there was also a discussion of how ukrainian anti-corruption efforts were making progress. dod reiterated what we had said in our earlier certification to congress, stating that defense reform including anti-corruption had occurred to justify the usai spending. i, and others at the interagency meetings, felt that the matter was particularly urgent, because it takes time to obligate that amount ...

Certifying, and you said this in your opening statement. the government of ukraine has taken substantial actions to make defense institutional reforms for the purposes of decreasing corruption, increasing accountability and sustaining improvements of combat capability enabled by u.s. assistance. so by the time president trump froze the aid, the department of defense had spent weeks, if not months, determining that the ukrainian government met every requirement in the law and made significant str...

That was abundantly clear. >> and listen, republicans like to say this president was much more willing to back the ukranians and give them aid, much more willing to do that, than president obama. well, theres a little problem with that. in this instance, he wanted to hold up aid, $400 million in the middle -- >> he was willing to do it. >> at one point, the republicans tried to make, corruption is an issue in ukraine, the president was concerned about corruption. it says in the law there needs t...

President zelensky had to make the statement and that he to want to do it. >> and by that point did you understand that the statement related to the biden and 2016 investigations? >> i think i did, yes. >> and that that was a -- essentially a condition for the security assistance to be released? >> i understood that is what ambassador sondland believed. >> after speaking with president trump? >> that is what he represented. >> now you testified that hearing this information gave you a sinking fe...