Mr. Mulvaney’s role has also come under increased scrutiny. Ms. Hill testified that she and the former national security adviser John R. Bolton believed that Mr. Mulvaney and the ambassador to the European Union, Gordon D. Sondland, were trying to bypass them to hijack Ukraine policy.
“I am not part of whatever drug deal Sondland and Mulvaney are cooking up,” Mr. Bolton said, according to Ms. Hill’s testimony to congressional investigators.
Mr. Mulvaney has told colleagues that he was unaware of what Mr. Bolton was talking about, according to a person familiar with his comments. Mr. Mulvaney has insisted that his role in the fallout from the Ukraine matter was limited to following presidential directives and setting up the call with Mr. Zelensky, at the urging of Mr. Sondland and Rick Perry, the secretary of energy. Mr. Mulvaney, who did not listen in on the discussion, had a top deputy on the call, who flagged no concerns.
But Mr. Mulvaney was involved in the effort to freeze $391 million in military assistance to Ukraine ahead of the July call. Mr. Trump directed him days ahead of the call to place a hold on the aid.
Mr. Mulvaney has told associates that the administration paused the aid to try to push Ukraine to more robustly fight corruption, not in connection with pressuring Ukraine to uncover dirt on of Mr. Trump’s political rivals. Since releasing the transcript last month, the White House has tried to cast its pressure campaign as itself an anticorruption effort, though to little effect.
Mr. Mulvaney was not involved in the release of the transcript. Current and former administration officials who have sought to protect Mr. Trump from the fallout over the conversation have nonetheless partly faulted Mr. Mulvaney for the call.
No special steps were taken to restrict the number of officials who listened in, allowing some officials who did to express concerns about it to the C.I.A. officer who eventually would compile their accounts into his whistle-blower complaint.
Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/15/us/politics/white-house-review-ukraine.html
Comments