Security Assistance and the July 25 Phone Call
Democrats and the White House legal team have made competing arguments about whether Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky mentioned U.S. security aid to his country in his July 25 phone call with President Donald Trump. The fact is, it’s unclear what Zelensky was referring to when he thanked Trump “for your great support in the area of defense.”
- Democratic Rep. Hakeem Jeffries claimed that Zelensky’s reference to defense “includes the security assistance passed by this Congress, on a bipartisan basis, that Donald Trump held up in violation of the law.”
- Deputy White House counsel Michael Purpura claimed that Zelensky was only referring to Ukraine purchasing Javelin missiles from the U.S. because he talked about that “in the very next sentence.”
Purpura further argued that “House Democrats claim that the Javelin sales discussed in the July 25 call are part of the paused security assistance,” saying that was “misleading.” But Purpura is the one being misleading. Jeffries didn’t equate the Javelins with the security assistance hold.
Overall, Purpura said, “the transcript shows that the president did not condition either security assistance or a meeting on anything.” But there is additional evidence, beyond the memo of that phone call, that suggests the administration tied a White House meeting for Zelensky and the security aid for Ukraine to Trump’s
