Two high-ranking members of the National Security Council testified before the US Congress that Mick Mulvaney played an important role in the Ukraine affair. Trump's chief of staff is said to have coordinated efforts to urge the Ukrainian government to investigate Joe Biden, Trump's potential rival in the next race for the presidency.
This is clear from the transcripts of their October hearings published by the US House of Representatives' intelligence committee in Washington on Friday.
Both witnesses, Ukraine expert on National Security Council Alexander Vindman, and former head of Russia's National Security Council, Fiona Hill, said that such investigations were a condition for a possible visit by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Selensky to the White House ,
Vindman said that US ambassador to the EU, Gordon Sondland, made it clear internally at the time that the Ukrainians would have to deliver by conducting research on the bids. Sondland has relied on Mulvaney.
Fiona Hill also said that in a meeting with Ukrainian officials, Sondland promised that President Selenskyj would meet with Trump in the White House when they announced the desired investigation. This had been discussed with Mulvaney.
Trump's former national security adviser, John Bolton, had abruptly ended the meeting because it was an "improper arrangement," Hill said. Bolton had then instructed them to inform the chief lawyer of the Security Council that he (Bolton) was "not part of the drug deal" that Sondland and Mulvaney were forging.
According to previous testimony, Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani was also a driving force in the effort to confront Ukraine. Bolton called this in an internal round according to Hill as a "hand grenade that will blow us all up".