Q. And was there any interagency activity, whether it be with the State Department for or the Defense Department, in coordination by the National Security Council, to look into that a little bit for the President?
A. We were surveying the data to understand who was contributing what and sort of in what categories.
Q. And so the President's evinced concerns, the interagency tried to address them?
A. Yes.[1]
In his public testimony, LTC Vindman confirmed the President's concerns about U.S. allies sharing the burden for mutual defense.[2]
3. U.S. foreign aid is often conditioned or paused, and U.S. security assistance to Ukraine has been paused before.
U.S. taxpayer-funded assistance to foreign governments is not an entitlement. The United States often conditions foreign aid on actions by recipient nations. In addition, foreign aid can, and often does, get delayed for various reasons. The pause of U.S. security assistance to Ukraine in this case is therefore not presumptive evidence of misconduct.
The United States conditions foreign assistance to a number of nations as a result of concerns about corruption, human rights abuses, or other issues. On October 31, 2019, the Trump Administration announced that it would withhold $105 million in security assistance for Lebanon shortly after the resignation of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri.[3] In September 2019, the State Department announced that it was withholding $160 million in aid from Afghanistan, citing corruption.[4] In June 2019, the Administration told Congress that it would reallocate $370 million in aid to Central American nations and suspend an additional $180 million in an effort to incentivize those countries to reduce the number of migrants reaching the U.S. border.[5] In 2017, President Trump froze $195 million in security assistance to Egypt—one of the largest recipients of U.S. aid—due to frustration with the country's poor track record on human rights and a recently enacted law regarding nongovernmental organizations.[6]
- ↑ Impeachment Inquiry: Ambassador Kurt Volker and Mr. Timothy Morrison, supra note 8.
- ↑ Impeachment Inquiry: LTC Alexander Vindman and Ms. Jennifer Williams, supra note 6.
- ↑ Patricia Zengerle & Mike Stone, Exclusive: U.S. withholding $105 million in security aid for Lebanon-sources, Reuters, Oct. 31, 2019.
- ↑ Tal Axelrod, US withholds $160M in Afghan aid citing corruption, The Hill, Sept. 9, 2019.
- ↑ Lesley Wroughton & Patricia Zengerle, As promised, Trump slashes aid to Central America over migrants, Reuters, Jun. 17, 2019.
- ↑ Gardiner Harris & Declan Walsh, U.S. Slaps Egypt on Human Rights Record and Ties to North Korea, N.Y. Times, Aug. 22, 2017.
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