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A hold was placed on the Ukraine aid at the beginning of July, and the agencies were notified at a July 18 meeting that it had been frozen at the direction of the President, a week before the Trump-Zelensky call.
The career official who initially withheld the aid money was Mark Sandy, according to a source familiar with the matter. Sandy testified before House impeachment investigators in a closed-door deposition, while Duffey defied a subpoena.
The documents to the House Budget Committee provide additional insight into the actions going on inside the White House’s budget office to hold up the US aid to Ukraine, a key part of the House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry. The committee only received a partial production of documents, which are separate from the impeachment inquiry, and it’s unclear what the significance is that the money was officially withheld on the same day as the July 25 call.
Asked about the information, an OMB spokesman said, “OMB has and will continue to use its apportionment authority to ensure taxpayer dollars are properly spent consistent with the President’s priorities and with the law. This is the same old spin from Democrats.”
Trump spoke to Zelensky the morning of July 25 around 9 a.m. ET. Laura Cooper, the deputy assistant secretary of Defense for Russian, Ukrainian, and Eurasian affairs, testified before Congress that that afternoon there were three interactions from her staff that indicate the Ukrainian government was aware there was an issue with US aid to the country.
An email from the State Department that Cooper said came through at 2:31 p.m. ET said the “Ukrainian embassy and House foreign affairs committee are asking about security assistance.”
Another email from the State Department at 4:25 p.m. ET that day said: “The Hill knows about the FMF (foreign military financing) situation to an extent and so does the Ukrainian embassy.”
“A member of my staff got a question from a Ukraine embassy contact asking what was going on with Ukraine security assistance,” Cooper said.
OMB issued several short-term withholdings of the Ukraine aid in August and September. OMB sent notification that the money would be released on September 11, the summary says, and the remainder of the funds were released on September 27 and September 30, which is the last day of the fiscal year.
The letters from Duffey show that on August 9, OMB said it would begin releasing 2% of the State Department funds each day, which the committee says prevented the normal spending of those funds.
Then on August 29, one day after Politico first reported that the aid had been withheld, Duffey signed another letter releasing 25% of the State Department funds each Sunday between September 1 and 22, according to the summary.
This story has been updated with additional developments Tuesday.
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