Lloyd James Austin III is a retired United States Army four-star general who has served as the 28th and current United States secretary of defense since January 22,2021.
David Maclain Hale is an American diplomat and career ambassador,who previously served as the United States Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs. He is currently a Distinguished Diplomatic Fellow at the Wilson Center,on detail from the Department of State.
William Brockenbrough Taylor Jr. is an American diplomat,government official,and former military officer. He served as the 6th United States ambassador to Ukraine from 2006 to 2009 under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama,and as chargéd’affaires to Ukraine from June 2019 to January 2020 under President Donald Trump.
Marie Louise"Masha" Yovanovitch is a Canadian-American former diplomat and retired senior member of the United States Foreign Service. She served in multiple State Department posts,including Senior Advisor to the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs (2004–2005),U.S. Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan (2005–2008),U.S. Ambassador to Armenia (2008–2011),Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs (2012–2013),and Ambassador to Ukraine (2016–2019). Yovanovitch is a diplomat in residence at the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University. On January 31,2020,it was reported that she had retired from the State Department.
Mark Alexander Milley is a retired United States Army general who last served as the 20th chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from October 1,2019,to September 30,2023. He previously served as the 39th chief of staff of the Army from August 14,2015,to August 9,2019,and held multiple command and staff positions in eight divisions and special forces throughout his military career.
Elaine A. McCusker is an American government official who served as Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller),one of the offices of United States Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense,from 2017 to 2020.
Kathryn Lynn Wheelbarger is an American attorney and government official,who served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs from 2018 to 2020.
The following is a timeline of the presidency of Donald Trump during the fourth and last quarter of 2019,from October 1 to December 31,2019. To navigate quarters,see timeline of the Donald Trump presidency.
The Trump–Ukraine scandal was a U.S. political scandal that arose from the discovery of U.S. President Donald Trump's attempts to coerce Ukraine and other countries into providing damaging narratives about 2020 Democratic Party presidential candidate Joe Biden and giving misinformation relating to Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. Trump enlisted surrogates within and outside his official administration,including his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and Attorney General William Barr,to pressure Ukraine and other foreign governments to cooperate in supporting conspiracy theories concerning American politics. Trump blocked payment of a congressionally-mandated $400 million military aid package in an attempt to obtain quid pro quo cooperation from Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump released the aid after becoming aware of a whistleblower complaint about his activities relating to Ukraine,before the complaint was known by Congress or the public. A number of contacts were established between the White House and the government of Ukraine,culminating in a phone call between Trump and Zelenskyy on July 25,2019.
The inquiry process which preceded the first impeachment of Donald Trump,45th president of the United States,was initiated by then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on September 24,2019,after a whistleblower alleged that Donald Trump may have abused the power of the presidency. Trump was accused of withholding military aid as a means of pressuring newly elected president of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky to pursue investigations of Joe Biden and his son Hunter and to investigate a conspiracy theory that Ukraine,not Russia,was behind interference in the 2016 presidential election. More than a week after Trump had put a hold on the previously approved aid,he made these requests in a July 25 phone call with the Ukrainian president,which the whistleblower said was intended to help Trump's reelection bid.
Timothy Aaron Morrison is an American Republican political adviser. He was briefly the top U.S. adviser to President Trump on Russia and Europe on the White House National Security Council,a position he took over from his predecessor Fiona Hill in August 2019,and from which he resigned on October 31,2019.
Alexander Semyon Vindman is a retired United States Army lieutenant colonel who was the Director for European Affairs for the United States National Security Council (NSC) until he was reassigned on February 7,2020. Vindman is currently director for the think tank the Institute for Informed American Leadership (IIAL).
Andrew P. Bakaj is a Washington,D.C. attorney and former intelligence officer with the Central Intelligence Agency. He was the principal attorney representing the whistleblower who filed the initial complaint that led to the launch of multiple investigations by the United States Congress into the Trump–Ukraine scandal,the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump,and,ultimately,the first impeachment of Donald Trump.
Kashyap Pramod "Kash" Patel is an American attorney and former government official. He served as a U.S. National Security Council official,senior advisor to the acting Director of National Intelligence,and chief of staff to the acting United States secretary of defense during the Trump presidency. A member of the Republican Party,Patel previously worked as a senior aide to congressman Devin Nunes when he chaired the House Intelligence Committee. He was previously a federal public defender,a federal prosecutor working on national security cases,and a legal liaison to the United States Armed Forces.
Jennifer Leigh Williams is an American United States Department of State official who has served as a special advisor to U.S. vice president Mike Pence on European and Russian affairs. Williams testified under subpoena,in the impeachment hearings of Donald Trump,in closed-door hearings before the House intelligence,Oversight,and Foreign Affairs committees on November 9,2019. She gave public testimony to the House of Representatives ten days later.
David Holmes is an American diplomat who served as a counselor for political affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine circa 2019-2020. He is at Georgetown University School of Foreign Service as Senior State Department Fellow,as of 2022.
The first impeachment of President Donald Trump occurred on December 18,2019. On that date,the House of Representatives adopted two articles of impeachment against Trump:abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. On February 5,2020,the Senate voted to acquit Trump on both articles of impeachment.
The first impeachment trial of Donald Trump,the 45th president of the United States,began in the U.S. Senate on January 16,2020,and concluded with his acquittal on February 5. After an inquiry between September and November 2019,President Trump was impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives on December 18,2019;the articles of impeachment charged him with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. It was the third impeachment trial of a U.S. president,preceded by those of Andrew Johnson and of Bill Clinton.
Christopher Charles Miller is an American retired United States Army Special Forces colonel who served as acting United States secretary of defense from November 9,2020,to January 20,2021. He previously served as Director of the National Counterterrorism Center from August 10 to November 9,2020. Before his civilian service in the Department of Defense,Miller was a Green Beret,commanding 5th Special Forces Group in Iraq and Afghanistan,and later spent time as a defense contractor.
This is a timeline of major events in second half of 2019 related to the investigations into the myriad links between Trump associates and Russian officials and spies that are suspected of being inappropriate,relating to the Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. It follows the timeline of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections before and after July 2016 up until election day November 8,and the transition,the first and second halves of 2017,the first and second halves of 2018,and the first half of 2019,but precedes that of 2020 and 2021.
