Trump and Mick Mulvaney put a hold on providing Javelin missiles to Ukraine because they didn’t want to upset Russia.
From the transcript of Catherine Croft’s testimony:
Q: One thing I just want to go back to before I move ahead to your time in Kyiv, the Javelins—the provision of the Javelins in 20—late 2017, early 2018, do you recall whether there was ever a hold or a freeze put on the Javelin provision?
A: There was a PCC process, and there was one hold—sorry, at the PC level, excuse me, the principals committee, and there was one agency that put a hold on that decision.
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Q: And which was that agency?
A: OMB.
Q: Did you understand why?
A: I understood the reason to be a policy one.
Q: What was the policy one?
A: In a briefing with Mr. Mulvaney, the question centered around the Russian reaction.
Q: What was the concern about the Russian reaction?
A: That Russia would react negatively to the provision of Javelins to Ukraine.
Q: What was the reaction to that concern from the other agencies?
A: I don’t know that I can provide that information in an unclassified setting.
Q: Okay. Is there any way to provide broadly?
A: I can broadly say that all of the policy agencies were in support.
Q: And you mean in support of providing the Javelins?
A: Correct. …
Q: Going back to the Javelins, it was the consensus of U.S. policymakers within the NSC and State Department that the Javelins should be provided. The lone objector was OMB. Is that right?
A: The lone objector in the paper PC on the Javelin decision was OMB
Q: So it was the view of—apart from OMB, it was the unanimous view that providing Javelins to Ukraine would help Ukraine in its defense against Russia and would, therefore, be in U.S. national security interest?
A: Correct.
Q: If we didn’t provide Javelins to Ukraine, would that serve Russia’s interest?
A: In my opinion, yes
It always manages to come back to Russia. Other impeachment testimony has revealed that Trump froze military aid to Ukraine by ordering Mick Mulvaney at OMB to stop the funds from being released. Trump didn’t want to upset Putin, so he denied Ukraine weapons that it could use to defend itself from Russian invasion and aggression. The situation continues to get worse for Trump. Prior to shaking down Ukraine for foreign election interference, Trump was putting Putin first in US foreign policy.
Trump and Mulvaney were doing Russia’s bidding even as they put the squeeze on Ukraine.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
