As I understood them, there had been a directive for whole-scale review of our foreign policy, foreign policy assistance, and the ties between our foreign policy objectives and the assistance. This had been going on actually for many months. And in the period when I was wrapping up my time there, there had been more scrutiny than specific assistance to specific sets of countries as a result of that overall view – review.[1]
The Democrats' witnesses also described how U.S. foreign assistance to Ukraine has been delayed in the past. Dr. Hill testified that security assistance to Ukraine has been paused before "at multiple junctures" during her time at NSC, even with bipartisan support for the assistance.[2] Dr. Hill testified:
Q. On the issue of the security assistance freeze, had assistance for Ukraine ever been held up before during your time at NSC?
A. Yes.
Q. For what—and when was that?
A. At multiple junctures. You know, it gets back to the question that [Republican staff] asked before. There's often a question raised about assistance, you know, a range of assistance—
Q. But for Ukraine specifically?
A. Yeah, that's correct.
Q. Okay. Even though there's been bipartisan support for the assistance?
A. Correct.[3]
Catherine Croft, a former NSC director, offered an example in her deposition, explaining that OMB paused the sale of Javelin missiles to Ukraine in November or December 2017.[4] This pause, too, was eventually lifted and Ukraine received the missiles.[5]
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