Page:20191203 - full report hpsci impeachment inquiry - 20191203.pdf/225

 * a cable on August 29 from Bill Taylor, the Chargé d’Affaires for U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine, at the recommendation of National Security Advisor John Bolton, sent directly to Secretary Pompeo “describing the folly I saw in withholding military aid to Ukraine at a time when hostilities were still active in the east and when Russia was watching closely to gauge the level of American support for the Ukrainian Government” and telling Secretary Pompeo “that I could not and would not defend such a policy”;178


 * WhatsApp messages and emails that Ambassador Sondland replicated and provided as exhibits to the Intelligence Committee showing key communications between Ambassador Sondland and high-level Trump Administration officials, including Secretary Pompeo, Secretary Perry, Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, and National Security Advisor John Bolton, as well as President Zelensky’s senior aide, Andriy Yermak;179


 * notes and memoranda to file from Mr. Kent, Ambassador Taylor, and others, including Ambassador Taylor’s “little notebook” in which he would “take notes on conversations, in particular when I’m not in the office,” such as meetings with Ukrainians or when out and receiving a phone call,” as well as his “small, little spiral notebook” of calls that took place in the office;180


 * emails among Philip Reeker, Acting Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs; David Hale, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs; Mr. Kent; and others regarding the unsuccessful effort to issue a public statement in support of Ambassador Yovanovitch, including the “large number of emails related to the press guidance and the allegations about the Ambassador” from the “late March timeframe.”181

The Committees also have good-faith reason to believe that the Department of State is in possession of and continues to withhold significantly more documents and records responsive to the subpoena and of direct relevance to the impeachment inquiry.

On October 7, the Committees sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Mark Esper conveying a subpoena issued by the Intelligence Committee for 14 categories of documents in response to reports that the President directed a freeze of hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid appropriated by Congress to help Ukraine counter Russian aggression. The Committees wrote:


 * Officials at the Departments of State and Defense reportedly were “puzzled and alarmed” after learning about the White House’s directive. Defense Department officials reportedly “tried to make a case to the White House that the Ukraine aid was effective and should not be looked at in the same manner as other aid,” but “those arguments were ignored.”182