Timothy Aaron Morrison (born 1978) is an American Republican political adviser. He was briefly the top U.S. adviser to President Trump on

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

and

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

on the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...

National Security Council A national security council (NSC) is usually an executive branch governmental body responsible for coordinating policy on national security issues and advising chief executives on matters related to national security. An NSC is often headed by a na ...

, a position he took over from his predecessor Fiona Hill in August 2019, and from which he resigned on October 31, 2019. Before that, he served as senior director for countering weapons of mass destruction -- "arms control and biodefense issues" -- on the US National Security Council, a position he assumed on July 9, 2018. For about a year he was also responsible for pandemic response planning with the former staffers of the Council Directorate for Global Health Security and Biodefense, but was elevated to deputy assistant to the president. Prior to his administration positions, he had been policy director for the Republican staff on the

House A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air condi ...

defense panel. Morrison entered politics as a professional staff member to Rep. Mark Kennedy, from 2000 to 2007. One day before his scheduled testimony to the

impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump The inquiry process which preceded the first impeachment of Donald Trump, 45th president of the United States, was initiated by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on September 24, 2019, after a whistleblower alleged that Donald Trump may have a ...

on October 31, 2019, Morrison was reported to be leaving his post soon as the senior director for European and Russian affairs on the National Security Council. He was to be replaced by Andrew Peek, at the time Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Iraq and Iran in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs. Morrison holds a

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...

from

George Washington University , mottoeng = "God is Our Trust" , established = , type = Private federally chartered research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.8 billion (2022) , preside ...

and a BA in political science from the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

Impeachment testimony

Morrison was among the people listening in on the July 25, 2019 phone conversation between President Trump and

Ukrainian President The president of Ukraine ( uk, Президент України, Prezydent Ukrainy) is the head of state of Ukraine. The president represents the nation in international relations, administers the foreign political activity of the state, condu ...

Volodymyr Zelensky Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy, ; russian: Владимир Александрович Зеленский, Vladimir Aleksandrovich Zelenskyy, (born 25 January 1978; also transliterated as Zelensky or Zelenskiy) is a Ukrainian politicia ...

that is central to the

. He was a primary source of information regarding the matter to

William B. Taylor, Jr. William Brockenbrough Taylor Jr. (born September 14, 1947) 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 President Bush and Obama, and ...

, the acting

US ambassador Ambassadors of the United States are persons nominated by the president to serve as the country's diplomatic representatives to foreign nations, international organizations, and as ambassadors-at-large. Under Article II, Section 2 of the U.S. ...

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

. Morrison's deposition in the impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump, given behind closed doors on October 31, partially corroborated the earlier deposition by Taylor, in particular that U.S. Ambassador to the E.U.

Gordon Sondland Gordon David Sondland (born July 16, 1957) is an American businessman. He is the founder and chairman of Provenance Hotels. He also served as the United States Ambassador to the European Union from 2018 to 2020. In November 2019, Sondland testi ...

had told , an aide to Zelensky via telephone that military aid to Ukraine, and a White house meeting with Trump, were conditional on a Ukrainian public announcement of an investigation into Burisma, and the Ukraine involvement in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Morrison also testified that his concerns regarding the Trump–Zelensky call, which he promptly communicated to White House lawyers, were about repercussions if the transcript of the call was to be leaked, not about the legality of its content or ''quid pro quo''. According to official transcripts of Morrison's closed door testimony, Morrison stated, "I want to be clear, I was not concerned that anything illegal was discussed," in the telephone call between Trump and Zelensky. During public testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives on November 19, 2019, Morrison stated that Sondland confirmed to him that there was indeed a ''quid pro quo'' requirement for US aid to Ukraine, and again brought up the telephone conversation between Sondland and Yermak, which took place on September 1, 2019.

Subsequent career

Morrison is serving as a senior fellow at the

Hudson Institute The Hudson Institute is a conservative American think tank based in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1961 in Croton-on-Hudson, New York, by futurist, military strategist, and systems theorist Herman Kahn and his colleagues at the RAND Corporat ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Morrison, Tim 1978 births Living people George Washington University Law School alumni United States congressional aides Trump administration personnel University of Minnesota alumni

Impeachment testimony

Subsequent career

See also

References

External links