Watch prime time reairs on cspan or stream any time on demand pot cspan. Org impeachme nt. The House Intelligence Committee just concluded its fifth open hearing of the impeachment inquiry against President Trump. Lawmakers heard testimony from Deputy Assistant secretary of defense for russian, ukrainian, and eurasian affairs, laura cooper. And under secretary of state for Political Affairs david hale. We will show you that hearing now in its entirety. [silence] [inaudible background conversations] [silence] the committee will come to order. Good afternoon everyone. This is the sixth in a series of public hearings the committee will be holding as part of the house of representatives impeachment inquiry. Without objection the chair is authorized to declare recess of the committee at any time. There was a quorum present. We will proceed today in the same fashion as her other hearings i will make an Opening Statement that the Ranking Member mr. Nunez will have an opportunity to make a statement. We will turn to our witnesses for their Opening Statements if they should choose to make one. For audience members we welcome you and respect your interest in being here. In turn we ask your respect as we proceed with this hearing. As chairman i will make any necessary or take any necessary appropriate steps to maintain order and ensure the committee has run in accordance with house rules and House Resolution 660. With that, i recognize myself to give Opening Statement in the impeachment inquiry into donald j trump, the 45th president of the United States. This afternoon the American People will hear from two witnesses were both better and National Security professionals, one of the department of state and the other at the Defense Department. David hale is the under secretary of state for Political Affairs, third most senior official in the department and most Senior Foreign Service officer. Laura cooper serves as Deputy Assistant secretary of cadefens for russia, ukraine, eurasia and responsible for broad range of countries and the former soviet union and the balkans. Between them they have several decades of National Security at experience serving both the public and and democratic president s. As we heard from other dedicated Public Servants like former ambassador to ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, former Deputy Assistant secretary of state george kent, ambassador bill taylor, Lieutenant Colonel alexander brenneman, and jennifer williams, their only priority has been the security of the United States. Secretary hill was witness to the Smear Campaign against ambassador to ukraine Marie Yovanovitch and the efforts by some of the state of burma to help her. In late march jovanovich ab unless there was a strong statement of defense of her from the state department. Hale push to get the state department to provide a robust fullpage statement of defense and praise ambassador Marie Yovanovitch to no avail. The silence continues to today. Late april we heard in riveting testimony last friday from ambassador yovanovitch she was recalled to washington and informed that she had lost the confidence of the president. Secretary of state did not meet with her, the subordinates dealt with her instead. With the department departure of yovanovitch hill watched as three new players moved into assume a prominent role in trumps ukraine policy. The three amigos were not only led by Energy Secretary rick perry, but it would be ambassador volker and ambassador sondland presumably working with ambassador taylor who would be the ones doing the continual work here. Midsummer trump ordered a suspension of military aid to ukraine. Despite the fact that the aide had been authorized and piappropriated by congress and that the Defense Department in consultation with the state department had certified ukraine met all the necessary requirements to receive the aide including anticorruption reform. The aide was in the National Interest of the United States. And critical to Ukraine Security. A country that had been invaded by russia. From her office in the pentagon ms. Cooper oversaw significant amount of Security Systems flowing to ukraine and was involved in efforts to understand and reverse the suspension of nearly 400 million in u. S. Aide. Cooper along with others during about the freeze a series ofs interagency meetings the last two weeks of july. At the first meeting on july 18 and owen be representative relayed that the white house chief of staff has conveyed that the president has concerns about ukraine and Ukraine Security assistance. And a whole had been ordered by the president. No explanation was provided. All of the agencies responsible for ukraine policy supported Security Assistance and advocated for lifting of the hold. The only dissenting voice was the office of management and budget, which was following the orders of President Trump. And still no good explanation of the hold was provided. While the eight suspension had not been made public, word was getting out, catherine croft, special advisor for ukraine negotiations work closely with ambassador volker received two separate calls in july or august from officials of the Ukrainian Embassy who approached me quietly and in confidence to ask me about an security ld on ukraine assistance. Croft was very surprised at the effectiveness of my ukrainian counterparts diplomatic tradecraft as and to say they found out very early on, much earlier than i expected them to. Ukrainians wanted answers but croft did not have a good response. Then in late August Cooper met with kurt volker abvolker revealed he was engaged in an effort to have the government of ukraine issue a statement that would commit to the prosecution of any individuals involved in election interference. Cooper understood that if volkers efforts were successful, the hold might be lifted. Unbeknownst to cooper, no such statement was forthcoming. But the aide was abruptly restored on september 11 days after the three committees launched an investigation into the trump ukraine scheme. I now recognize the Ranking Member. Thank you. As we republicans have argued at these hearings, the American People are getting the skewed impression of these events. Thats because democrats assume full authority to call witnesses and they probably rejected any new witnesses republicans requested. I would like to take a moment to discuss a few of the people whose testimony has been deemed unacceptable for the American People to hear. The whistleblower, the whistleblower the key figure who started this entire impeachment charade by submitting a complaint against President Trump that relied on secondhand and thirdhand information and media reports. This began a bizarre series of events although the complaint had no intelligence component whatsoever, the Intelligence CommunityInspector General accepted it and even change the guidance on the complaint forms to eliminate the requirement for firsthand information. In his office backdated the forms to make them appear as if they were published a month before. Democrats then took the extremely rare step of pushing a whistleblower complaint into the public. Using it as a centerpiece of their impeachment crusade. We later learned that the democratic staff and prior coordination with the rwhistleblower, though democrat themselves denied it on national television. Following that revelation, democrats did a dramatic aboutface, they suddenly dropped to the assistance that the whistleblower testified and rejected a request to hear from him. Then in the hearing yesterday the democrats cut off our questions and accused us of trying to help the whistleblower. Even though they claim they dont even know who he is. Alexander chalupa, chalupa is a former operative abin order to smear the Trump Campaign in 2016. She met directly about these matters with then Ukrainian Ambassador shall awho himself wrote an article criticizing trump during the 2016 campaign. All of which were aimed at the Trump Campaign. Once you understand that ukrainian officials were cooperating to undermine his candidacy its easy to understand why the president will want to learn the full truth about these operations and why he would be skeptical of ukraine. Biden is another witness who the democrats are sparing from cross examination. Securing of an extremely wellpaying job on the board of the corrupt ukrainian company, breeze mama, highlights the corrupt problem in ukraine that concern not only President Trump but all of the witnesses weve interviewed so far. The democrats have dismissed questions about bidens role in breeze mama as conspiracy theories. Yet they are trying to impeach President Trump for having expressed concerns about the company. If we can hear from biden we can ask him how he got his position, what did he do to earn his lavish salary . And what light could he shed on corruption at this notorious company. Biden would make it inconvenient witness for the democrats so they blocked. These hearings weve heard a lot of secondhand thirdhand information and speculation about President Trumps intentions but in the end and the only direct order weve heard from the president is his order to our last witness investor sondland that he wanted nothing from ukraine. That is consistent with the testimony provided by senator rojohnson who said President Trump angrily denied accounts that a quid pro quo existed. Aside from rejecting our witnesses the democrats have tried other petty tricks to shape public opinion. Just this morning they called a break in the hearing in order to push their arguments to tv cameras. And as they pad as previous witnesses. Through a bizarrely considered has their star witnesses. When you look through the presumptions and assumptions of smoke and mirrors, you see the facts of the case are clear. President trump was skeptical of foreign aid generally and especially skeptical of aid to corrupt countries like ukraine. A brief hold on ukrainian aide was lifted without ukraine taking any steps. They were supposedly being brought to do. President zelinski repeatedly said there was nothing improper about President Trumps call with him and he did not even know about the hold in aid at the time he was supposedly being extorted. What exactly are the democrats impeaching the president for . None of us here really know. Because the accusations change by the hour. Once again, this is impeachment and search of a crime so chairman, i would urge you to bring this to a close and ouduring the hearing and move o. And get back to the work of the intelligence committee. Today we are joined by ambassador david hale and laura cooper. David hale serves as under and her secretary of state for Political Affairs department of state a position hes held since august 30, 2018. Mr. Hale joined Foreign Service in 1984 and holds the rank of career ambassador. He previously served as ambassador to pakistan ambassador to Lebanon Special envoy for middle east peace deputy special envoy and investor to jordan. Ambassador hale also served as Deputy Assistant secretary of state and executive assistant to secretary of state albright. Laura cooper is the Deputy Assistant secretary of defense for russia, ukraine, eurasia at the department of defense. She is a career member of the Senior Executive service ms. Cooper previously served as principal director in the office of the assistant secretary of defense for Homeland Defense. In Global Security affairs. Prior to joining the department of defense she was aboffice of coordinator for counterterrorism. Two final points before witnesses are sworn, first, witness depositions were unclassified in nature and all open hearings will also be held at the unclassified level and information that might touch unclassified information will be addressed separately and congress will not tolerate threat of reprisal or attempt to retaliate against any u. S. Official. If you both please rise, and raise your right hand, i will begin by swearing you in. Do swear or affirm that the testimony you are about to give is the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth, so help you god . Let the records show the witnesses answered in the affirmative. Please be seated. The microphone is sensitive, please speak right into it. Without objection you written statements will be made part of the record. Ambassador hale you are free to give Opening Statement and after that ms. Cooper you are free for Opening Statement. I dont have a prepared Opening Statement but i would like to comment as you said, ive been undersecretary since august 2018 Foreign Service officer for over 35 years and ambassador three times serving both republican and democratic administrations proudly and im here in response to your subpoena to answer questions of the committee. Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member, members of the committee, i appeared today to provide facts and answer questions based on my experience as the Deputy Assistant secretary of defense for russia, ukraine, and eurasia. I would first like to describe rmy background as well as my role advantage point relevant to your inquiry. I bring to my daily work and to this proceeding my sense of duty to u. S. National security. Not any political party. I probably serve two democratic and two republican president s i entered Government Service to the president ial management and joining the state department in 1989 to work on counterterrorism in europe and the former soviet union. Inspired by working with the u. S. Military on department of defense rotational assignment i decided to accept Civil Service position in the policy organization of the office of the secretary of defense in january p2001 tumor have remained for the past 18 8 year. My strong sense of pride in serving my country and dedication to my pentagon 8 colleagues were cemented in the moments after i felt the pentagon shake beneath me on september 11, 2001. My office was scheduled to move into the section of the pentagon that was destroyed in the attack but a construction delay meant we were still at her old desks in the adjacent section on that devastating day. After we had wiped the black dust from our desks and tried to get back to work, i found meaning by volunteering to work on afghanistan policy and would give my next four years to this mission. I later had the opportunity to move into the leadership ranks of my organization. And ive had the privilege to manage issues ranging from defense Strategic Planning to Homeland Defense and mission assurance. I accepted the position of principal director for russia, ukraine, and eurasia in 2016 and was honored to be appointed formally in 2018. In my current role i worked to advance u. S. National security with a focus on deterring russian aggression and building strong partnerships with the frontline states ukraine and georgia as well as 10 other allies and partners from the balkans to the caucuses. Strengthenings ukraines capacity to defend itself against russia aggression is central to my teams mission. The United States and our allies provide ukraine with Security Assistance because it is in our National Security interest to deter russian aggression around the world. We also provide Security Assistance so that ukraine can negotiate a peace with russia from a position of strength. The e human toll continues to climb in this ongoing war. With 14,000 ukrainian lives lost since russias 2014 invasion. These sacrifices are continually come in my mind, as i lead dod efforts to provide vital training and equipment including defense of Legal Assistance to the Ukrainian Armed forces. Ive also supported a robust