during president trump s administration from mid-july to september. guess what, my colleagues? there were ukrainians killed when they had received their previous aid. there were ukrainians who were killed in this battle before. this is the most despicable, despicable of drive-byes to say in this many you are telling secretary hill has told you over and over again. he said this was prospective money, not current money. but we keep putting it in the record because if you tell the story enough times, somebody is going to believe it. that s despicable for these 13 who lost their lives in ukraine and it s despicable for anybody who s fought a battle for this country. don t keep doing it. and if they do, call them out on it. we are going to call facts facts here. there is no crime. you know why? it s interesting. my friend from california just said where are they on these different things? where is the democrats? my question is where is your crimes? you talk about them.
them being aware that the aid was being withheld? sir, just to be clear the september 5th conversation that i had was specific to the hold. there was an awareness of that, and there was a question of concern. okay. thank you. you know, ms. cooper well, to both of you. under secretary hill as well at the end of the day it really does come to this. the transcript holding out is phone call between president zelensky and president trump that i would hope every american would take the opportunity to read. it s only a few pages long. and much more information beyond that is maybe helpful to inform, but it really comes down to those conversations, those few sentences. but mr. hill we re going through questions here. you agree states you
this afternoon, the american people will hear from two witnesses who are both veteran national security professionals. one at the department of state. and the other at the defense department. david hale is the under-secretary of state for political affairs. the third-most senior official in the department and the most senior foreign service officer. laura cooper serves as deputy assistant secretary of defense for russia, ukraine, eurasia, and is responsible for a broad range of countries in the former soviet union and the balkans. between them, they have several decades of national security experience serving both republican and democratic presidents. and as we have heard from other dedicated public servants like former ambassador to ukraine marie yovanovitch, george kent, ambassador taylor, lieutenant colonel alexander vindman, their only priority has been security of the united states. secretary hill was witness to the smear campaign against
government official in ukraine to help ukrainians overcome the legacy of corruption, which they actually have made a number of important steps since 2014. in fact, before all of this happened you and your superiors at the state department asked the ambassador to extend her time in the ukraine. correct, sir? that is correct. did you support her extension? i asked letter to extend until the end of this year to get through the election cycle in ukraine and under secretary hill in march asked her to stay until 2020. now, some in ukraine probably disliked her efforts to help ukraine root out corruption. is that correct? as i mentioned in my testimony you can t promote principled anti-corruption action without pissing off anti-corrupt people. fair enough. now, some of those people helped giuliani smear her. did they not? they did. so ultimately that smear campaign pushed president trump to remove her. correct, sir? i cannot judge that. what i can say is that rudy
ukrainians overcome the legacy of corruption. yovanovitch get recalled which they actually have made a number of important from ukraine? steps since 2014. i believe a message was so, in fact, before all of this happened, you and sent on or about april 24th. your superiors at the state okay. certainly well before the department asked the ambassador to extend her july 25th call that s in question here, correct? time in the ukraine. without a doubt. correct, sir? and she had no remaining that is correct. did you support her extension? responsibilities with i asked her to extend respect to ukraine policy until the end of this year for that three or four to get through the election months in between, i take it? she is now a she was cycle in ukraine and then under secretary hill in transferred to a teaching march asked her to stay until 2020. now, some in ukraine slot at georgetown where her probably disliked her responsibilities, among others, were to teach a efforts t