Pentagon official Laura Cooper testified at impeachment hearings today that her office received two separate emails about the hold-up in security assistance for Ukraine on July 25 – the same day as Trump’s infamous call with the Ukrainian president.
The Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary’s evidence appears to undercut a key claim by Trump’s defenders, that Ukraine did not know about the hold-up of $400 million in aid, and that therefore there was no ‘quid pro quo.’
Democrats seized on it as a fresh revelation which strikes a new blow to Trump’s defense.
It came after Trump’s hand-picked ambassador to the EU, Gordon Sondland, dropped bombshell after bombshell in hours of testimony in which he said there was a quid pro quo – that Ukraine would not get a White House meeting without investigating ‘Burisma’; that he was ordered to talk to Rudy Giuliani; that Mike Pompeo and Mike Pence both knew about a link between ‘investigations’ and military aid; and that investigating Burisma meant the Bidens, which would benefit Trump.
At a session which started more than three hours later than planned, Cooper provided new information that she said she learned form her staff following her earlier closed door deposition.
She said that on July 25th her staff got two emails, one from the State Department stating that the House Foreign Affairs Committee and Ukrainians were asking about security assistance.
Another email stated the Hill – meaning staff working for lawmakers – and the Ukrainian knew about the foreign assistance situation. Both emails came in the afternoon.
‘The Hill knows about the FMF situation and so does the Ukrainian embassy,’ the second email said, Cooper testified. FMF stands for ‘Foreign Military Financing,’ the government term for aid to foreign countries.
The 25th is the day when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky brought up his interest in getting Javelin missiles on a phone call with the president, and Trump asked for a ‘favor’ including investigations and mentioned Joe Biden specifically.
Cooper testified she did not recall receiving those emails.
She said she never talked to the president but heard from people she doesn’t recall that ‘the president was concerned about corruption. That was all I ever heard.’
‘I heard that the president had directed the Office of Management and Budget to hold the funds because of his concerns about corruption in Ukraine,’ she said.
Under oath before the House Intelligence Committee, Cooper said she received emails on July 25 saying that both the Ukrainian embassy in Washington and the House Foreign Affairs Committee were asking about the assistance.
‘I would say that, specifically, the Ukrainian embassy staff asked, ‘What is going on with Ukrainian security assistance?’ Cooper said.
Asked by Representative Adam Schiff if the Ukrainians had been ‘concerned,’ Cooper replied, ‘Yes, sir.’
Trump is accused of improperly withholding aid and a summit with Zelensky as he pressed Ukraine to launch an investigation into his domestic rival Joe Biden.
Trump in the phone call asked Zelensky for ‘a favor.’ Trump’s defenders have argued, in part, that his effort was not improper as Ukraine did not know about the holdup.
Kurt Volker has said that he was not aware of the aid freeze until Politico ran an article in late August.
Cooper said that her staff received the emails on July 25 and that she had not been personally briefed on them until she conducted research in preparation for her congressional appearance.
She had earlier testified in a deposition behind closed doors and had not known then about the emails, she said today.
The Pentagon and State Department are both resisting subpoenas from the Intelligence Committee.
Pressed by Republican Rep. John Ratcliffe of Texas, Cooper said she couldn’t state specifically that the emails were about the ‘hold’ as opposed to foreign assistance generally.
‘I don’t want to speculate on what it means,’ she said.
But she said Ukrainians tended to call about ‘specific things’ not just ‘generally checking in on their assistance package.
‘Ms. Cooper, your testimony today destroys two of the pillars of the president’s defense and one justification for his conduct,’ said Rep. Eric Swallwell of California. ‘First pillar: no harm no foul, the Ukrainians didn’t know that the hold was in place … Second pillar, this president was a real champion of anti-corruption,’ he said.
Her testimony came hours after U.S. ambassador to the E.U. Gordon Sondland testified there was a ‘quid pro quo’ linking a White House visit to investigations the president and Rudy Giuliani were demanding.
Sondland also said he concluded $400 million in military aid to Ukrain was also part of the ‘logjam’ he was trying to fix.
Cooper also added: ‘Sometime during the week of August 6-10, a Ukraine officer told a member of my staff a Ukrainian official might raise concerns about security assistance in an upcoming meeting.’
Cooper, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia, testified she did not recall receiving those emails.
She said she never talked to the president but heard from people she doesn’t recall that ‘the president was concerned about corruption. That was all I ever heard.’
‘I heard that the president had directed the Office of Management and Budget to hold the funds because of his concerns about corruption in Ukraine,’ she said.
Adam Schiff, in his opening statement, stated that ‘no good explanation of the hold was provided’ for holding up the aid.
Rep. Devin Nunes once again dwelled on process and blasted Democrats for not providing proper notice of how questioning would get handled.
‘The American people are getting a skewed impression of these events,’ he groused.
He accused Democrats of ‘petty tricks,’ saying: ‘Just this morning they called a break in the hearing in order to press their absurd arguments to TV cameras.’
President Trump weighed in with a tweet tonight. ‘If this were a prizefight, they’d stop it!’ he claimed.