Laura Cooper Biography

Laura K. Cooper is the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine, Eurasia. She has responsibilities responsibility for policy concerning Russia, Ukraine, Eurasia, and Western Balkans as well as Conventional Arms Control.

She previously served as a Principal Director in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Global Security Affairs, with responsibility for policies on: mission assurance, defense continuity of operations, critical infrastructure protection, homeland counterterrorism, global antiterrorism policy, and the Council of Governors.

Laura Cooper Education

Cooper has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Northwestern University, she has a Master of Science in Foreign Service degree from Georgetown University and a Master of Science in National Resource Strategy degree from the Industrial College of Armed Forces at National Defense University.

Laura Cooper Defense Department – Laura Cooper DOD

Laura joined the Defense Department in 2001, working in several policy roles before going on to serve as a principal director in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Global Security Affairs. As a deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia, Laura K. Cooper is involved in overseeing U.S. military assistance to Ukraine.

She previously served as a Principal Director in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Global Security Affairs, with responsibility for policies on: mission assurance, defense continuity of operations, critical infrastructure protection, homeland counterterrorism, global antiterrorism policy, and the Council of Governors.

Prior to joining the Department of Defense, she worked as a policy planning officer at the State Department in the Office of Coordinator for Counterterrorism. She has also served as a Junior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Laura Cooper Non-Partisan

Cooper is non-partisan and is the only key witnesses in the impeachment hearings who neither work for the democratic or republican side. She is a civil servant who has stayed away from politics.

Laura Cooper Testimony

Cooper had a closed deposition in late October. Her deposition was delayed more than five hours after House Republicans stormed the secured hearing room where her appearance was taking place.

According to a transcript of the hearing Cooper testified that the Defense Department had certified the financial transfer in May because Ukraine had met the necessary anti-corruption benchmarks. But by July — shortly before Trump’s July 25 phone call to Ukraine’s president — she told lawmakers that she was hearing the money was on hold because, “the president has concerns about Ukraine and Ukraine security assistance,” she said she heard from the White House budget office.

Cooper said senior aides were unclear legally how everything would “play out.”

“So the comments in the room at the deputies’ level reflected a sense that there was not an understanding of how this could legally play out, and at that meeting the deputies agreed to look into the legalities and to look at what was possible.”

She claimed that the Pentagon believed Ukraine had addressed key corruption issues is at odds with what Trump and the White House has publicly stated suggesting it remained a serious concern.

In her testimony, Cooper spoke to the need for the military aid to combat the threat from Russia, noting that Moscow had already in 2014 tried to annex a portion of Ukraine.

“They are trying to negotiate a peace with Russia, and if they are seen as weak, and if they are seen to lack the backing of the United States for their Armed Forces, it makes it much more difficult for them to negotiate a peace on terms that are good for Ukraine.”

She also described a conversation with former U.S. envoy to Ukraine, Kurt Volker, in which he said the military aid would be released if Ukraine was willing to make a statement, “that would somehow disavow any interference in U.S. elections and would commit to the prosecution of any individuals in election interference.”