Likewise, NSC Senior Director Tim Morrison recalled that President Zelensky's team had literally been working through the night on anti-corruption reforms. He testified:
Q: And after the Rada was seated, do you know if President Zelensky made an effort to implement those [anti-corruption] reforms?
A: I do.
Q: And what reforms generally can you speak to?
A: Well, he named a new prosecutor general. That was something that we were specifically interested in. He had his party introduce a spate of legislative reforms, one of which was particularly significant was stripping Rada members of their parliamentary immunity. That passed fairly quickly, as I recall. Those kinds of things.
Q: And within what time period were some of those initial reforms passed?
A: Very, very quickly.
Q: Okay. So in the month of August?
A: When we were—when Ambassador Bolton was in Ukraine and he met with President Zelensky, we observed that everybody on the Ukrainian side of the table was exhausted, because they had been up for days working on, you know, reform legislation, working on the new Cabinet, to get through as much as possible on the first day.
Q: Remind me again of Ambassador Bolton's visit. Was that August, at the end of August?
A: It was at the end of August. It was between the G7 and the Warsaw commemoration
Q: So by Labor Day, for example?
A: I seem to recall we were—we—we were there on the opening day of the Rada. President – President Zelensky met with Ambassador Bolton on the opening day of the Rada, and they were in an all-night session. Yeah. So, I mean, things were happening that day.[1]
These actions by the Ukrainian government in early September 2019 are significant in demonstrating President Zelensky's commitment to fighting corruption. Although the
- ↑ Morrison deposition, supra note 12, at 128-29.
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