During Tuesday’s impeachment hearing, Jennifer Williams, an aide to Vice President Mike Pence, provided an account of a meeting between her boss and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that undercuts the Democrats’ case against President Trump.
Williams testified that she attended a Sept. 1 meeting between Pence and Zelensky in Warsaw (that date is significant to the Ukraine timeline, as I’ll explain later). At that point, Ukrainians had already come to understand, through news reports, that there was a hold on expected security aid.
A concerned Zelensky started off the meeting by asking about the security assistance, Williams said. He explained that the importance of the aid was not just the physical weaponry, but also the symbolic significance of demonstrating U.S. support. A delay in aid could embolden Russia, which could see it as an opportunity to exploit a possible rift between the United States and Ukraine.
Daniel Goldman, the Democratic counsel, asked, “Did Vice President Pence provide a reason for the hold on security assistance to the Ukrainian president in that meeting?”
Williams responded, “The vice president did not specifically discuss the reason behind the hold, but he did reassure President Zelensky of the strongest U.S. unwavering support for Ukraine, and they talked about the need for European countries to step up and provide more assistance to Ukraine as well.”
That does not speak to a full-court press on the part of the administration to get Ukraine to publicly commit to investigating Joe and Hunter Biden.
What’s interesting is that Sept. 1st is the same day in which Gordon Sondland, ambassador to the European Union, met with Zelensky aid Andriy Yermak, and conveyed that U.S. security assistance would not resume until there was a public commitment to investigations.
So, to be sure, the Williams testimony does not end the story. It’s certainly plausible to argue that the pressure being put on Ukraine was being done implicitly (given the importance of the aid to the Ukrainians and Trump’s request for investigations) and through aides (like the Sondland meeting). It’s also perfectly possible that Pence didn’t want any part of the effort, or that the pressure campaign was disorganized and not carefully choreographed.
That said, if there were a highly orchestrated pressure campaign to tie security assistance to aid, it would make sense that Pence would seek to convey in some way that Zelensky could grease the wheels if he announced the investigations, even if Pence sent the message in coded language about corruption. Instead, according to Williams, Pence sought to reassure Zelensky about the strength of the U.S.-Ukraine relationship.
