that, i yield back. i thank the gentleman. today, we are joined by ambassador david hale and miss laura cooper. david hale serve business as the undersecretary of state for political affairs with the department, a position he has held since august 30, 2018. mr. hale joined the foreign service in 1984 and holds the rank of career ambassador. he previously served as ambassador to pakistan, ben non, special envoy for middle east peace and deputy special envoy and ambassador to jordan. he served as executive assistant secretary of state to secretary albright. laura cooper is the secretary of defense to russia, ukraine and eurasia at the department of defense. shays career member of the senior executive service. miss cooper principally served as principle director in the office of assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense and global security affairs.
but a construction delay meant we were still at our 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 had the privilege to manage issues ranging from defense strategic planning to homeland defense and mission assurance. i accepted the position of principle director for russia, ukraine and eurasia in 2016 and was honored to be appointed formally to the position of deputy assistant secretary of defense in 2018. in my current role, i work to advance u.s. national security with focus of deterring russian aggression and building strong partnerships with the front line states of ukraine and georgia,
states. this afternoon the american people will hear from two witnesses who are both veteran national security professionals. one at the department of tate and the other at the defense department. david hale is the undersecretary of state for political affairs the third most senior official in the department and the most senior foreign service officer. laura cooper is deputy assistant secretary of defense for russia, ukraine, eur asia and responsible for the former soviet union and the balkens. they have served both republican and democratic presidents. and as we have heard from other dedicated public servants like former ambassador to ukraine marie yovanovitch, former deputy secretary bill kent and ambassador bill taylor and alexander vindman and jennifer williams and the only priority has been the security of the united states. undersecretary hale was witness to the smear campaign against marie yovanovitch and the efforts by some in the state department to help her.
don mcgahn should testify before the white house judiciary committee and they hope that may influence other individuals to come forward and testify in this impeachment inquiry. we ll see if that actually happens. but nevertheless you re hearing from democrats who feel good about what they re hearing. they believe they have more than enough evidence to move forward. we ll see when they ultimately decide if this is it with the house intelligence committee. this could be the last week before they move into the next phase, wolf. we ll stand by. we re getting ready for round two as i say of this hearing. david hale and laura cooper are about to walk into the hearing room and the chairman of the committee adam schiff will bring this session to order. it is interesting, kaitlan, that ambassador sondland couldn t remember all of the precise details of that july 26th phone call he had. he was sitting in a restaurant, outdoors, in kiev, in ukraine. the u.s. embassy councillor for political aff
for working for donald trump. and that is this kind of behavior is normal. top aides get desensitized. and laura cooper is walking in now. laura cooper, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for russia and ukraine and asia. and when they got and there is david hale, the undersecretary of state for political affairs. go ahead. cooper testified whenever they got the surprising call that the aid was being withheld that on that call the line from the white house was this was coming from the president himself. and so she s someone who is going to be able to testify the view from the department of defense, how involved was the president, what was being communicated to them about why this aid was being frozen? that is another interesting thing about the testimony and may get into that here, she testified the white house is saying this is all about about anti-corruption and she testified that during this period it was held july, august