Ashton Baldwin Carter was an American government official and academic who served as the 25th United States secretary of defense from February 2015 to January 2017. He later served as director of the Belfer Center for Science &International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School.
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.
Gordon David Sondland is an American businessman. He is the founder and chairman of Provenance Hotels. Sondland is a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations and served as the United States Ambassador to the European Union from 2018 to 2020. In November 2019,he testified as a witness at the impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump. After refusing to resign,Sondland was fired by Trump on February 7,2020,two days after the conclusion of Trump's impeachment trial.
Joseph Keith Kellogg Jr. is an American statesman,diplomat,and retired lieutenant general in the United States Army. He previously served as the National Security Advisor to Vice President Mike Pence,and as the Executive Secretary and Chief of Staff of the United States National Security Council in the first Trump administration. He served as National Security Advisor on an acting basis following the resignation of Michael T. Flynn. In November 2024,President-elect Trump selected Kellogg to be his special envoy for Ukraine and Russia.
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.
Mark Thomas Esper is an American politician and manufacturing/high-tech executive who served as the 27th United States secretary of defense from 2019 to 2020. A member of the Republican Party,he had previously served as the 23rd U.S. secretary of the Army from November 2017 to July 2019.
Kathryn Lynn Wheelbarger is an American attorney and government official,who served as Principal Deputy and Acting 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.
Earl G. Matthews is an American government official and attorney who held senior positions within the Department of the Army and at the White House during the administration of President Donald Trump. Matthews was a member of Trump's Department of Defense transition team and was appointed as a Special Assistant to the Secretary of Defense,James N. Mattis on January 20,2017. Matthews was subsequently appointed as the Principal Deputy General Counsel of the Army on June 21,2019. He served as Acting General Counsel of the Army from June 21,2017,until James E. McPherson was sworn in as General Counsel on January 2,2018.
The Trump–Ukraine scandal was a political scandal that arose primarily from the discovery of U.S. President Donald Trump's attempts to coerce Ukraine into investigating his political rival Joe Biden and thus potentially damage Biden's campaign for the 2020 Democratic Party presidential nomination. Trump enlisted surrogates in and outside his administration,including personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and Attorney General William Barr,to pressure Ukraine and other governments to cooperate in supporting and legitimizing the bogus Biden–Ukraine conspiracy theory and other conspiracy theories concerning US 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. Contacts were established between the White House and government of Ukraine,culminating in a 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 of European Affairs for the United States National Security Council (NSC) until he was reassigned on February 7,2020. Vindman is currently director of the think tank Institute for Informed American Leadership (IIAL). Vindman came to national attention in October 2019 when he testified before the United States Congress regarding the Trump–Ukraine scandal. His testimony provided evidence that resulted in a charge of abuse of power in the first impeachment of Donald Trump.
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.
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.
Donald Trump,serving as the 45th president of the United States,was impeached for the first time 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.
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.
