OMB Official: Ukraine Aid Held Up Because Other Countries Weren’t Giving

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Breitbart

Mark Sandy, an official at the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), testified earlier this month that he was told U.S. security assistance to Ukraine had been held up because of President Donald Trump’s concerns that other countries were not giving enough.

The House Intelligence Committee released a transcript of Sandy’s closed-door deposition on Tuesday afternoon, which had not been made available before recent public hearings in the impeachment inquiry.

Sandy testified that Trump began asking questions about the aid on June 19. He learned about the president’s decision to withhold the aid on July 18th, when he returned from leave. He sought advice from the OMB counsel, because the terms of the Impoundment Control Act set a limit to how long funds could be held. When he asked for the reason for the hold, his supervisor did not know, nor did anyone else.

 

Finally, he said, there was an email in early September that explained the reasoning: “I recall in early September an email that attributed the hold to the President’s concern about other countries not contributing more to Ukraine.” That was after a Politico articlein late August revealing the existence of the hold, but before the transcript of the president’s phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was declassified and released on Sep. 25.