Published 2 hours ago on November 26, 2019
REVEALED: OMB first took official action to withhold Ukraine aid just hours after Trump’s ‘perfect’ call.
Newly revealed documents show that the Office of Management and Budget took its first official action to withhold military aid from Ukraine just hours after President Donald Trump had his supposedly “perfect” phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
House Budget Committee summary of OMB documents shows that a withholding letter for Ukrainian aid was filed on the evening of July 25th, which was the same day that Trump infamously asked Zelensky to do him a “favor” by launching investigations into former Vice President Joe Biden.
That withholding letter… was signed by a career OMB official. “But the next month, OMB political appointee Michael Duffey signed letters taking over the decision to withhold both the Pentagon and State Department aid to Ukraine from the career official.
Even though the first official action on withholding aid to Ukraine was taken on July 25th, the decision to withhold the aid was revealed to agencies one week earlier, on July 18th.
Laura Cooper, the deputy assistant secretary of Defense for Russian, Ukrainian, and Eurasian affairs, testified earlier this month that Ukrainian officials began asking questions about a holdup for military aid on the same day that Trump had his call with Zelensky.
“A member of my staff got a question from a Ukraine embassy contact asking what was going on with Ukraine security assistance,” she told the House Intelligence Committee.
Home 
