Senate Aide Investigated Over Unofficial Actions in Ukraine
Source: New York Times
A senior Capitol Hill staff member who is a longtime voice on Russia policy is under congressional investigation over his frequent trips to Ukraines war zones and providing what he said was $30,000 in sniper gear to its military, documents show.
The staff member, Kyle Parker, is the senior Senate adviser for the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, known as the Helsinki Commission. The commission is led by members of Congress and staffed by congressional aides. It is influential on matters of democracy and security and has been vocal in supporting Ukraine.
A confidential report by the commissions director and general counsel, which The New York Times reviewed, said that the equipment transfer could make Mr. Parker an unregistered foreign agent. It said that Mr. Parker had traveled Ukraines front lines wearing camouflage and Ukrainian military insignia and had hired a Ukrainian official for a U.S. government fellowship over the objections of congressional ethics and security officials.
And it raised the possibility that he was wittingly or unwittingly being targeted and exploited by a foreign intelligence service, citing unspecified counterintelligence issues that should be referred to the F.B.I.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/26/world/europe/ukraine-senate-aide-investigation.html
Charging Triceratops
(165 posts)If he was helping Putin, hang him from a tall tree.
James48
(4,436 posts)If you provide "sniper gear" to Ukraine's military as a private person, you are violating federal law. But if you provide it to them from taxpayers, it's a direct government paid program and it's just fine.
Got it.
Old Okie
(145 posts)I thought a lot of Americans were giving aid to Ukraine, buying drones; etc? Are we foreign agents? Who is raising the issue, Putin's fellow travelers in our government?
brooklynite
(94,598 posts)nb: he's under CONGRESSIONAL investigation, not criminal.