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Laura Cooper, the top Pentagon official overseeing U.S. policy regarding Ukraine, told House impeachment investigators last month that President Donald Trump directed the relevant agencies to freeze aid to Ukraine over the summer, according to a transcript of her testimony released Monday.
Cooper, during Oct. 23 testimony before the three House committees leading the impeachment inquiry into Trump’s Ukraine dealings, testified that she and other Pentagon officials had answered questions about the Ukraine assistance in the middle of June — so she was surprised when one of her subordinates told her that a hold had been placed on the funds after an interagency meeting in July.
“I got, you know, I got a readout from the meeting — there was discussion in that session about the — about OMB [Office of Management and Budget] saying that they were holding the Congressional Notification related to” Ukraine, Cooper testified, according to the transcript.
Cooper, according to the transcript of her testimony, described the hold as “unusual.”
Asked if the president was authorized to order that type of hold, Cooper said there were concerns that he wasn’t.
At the next meeting with national security personnel, she said she told attendees “there were two legally available mechanisms should the President want to stop assistance” — a presidential rescission notice to Congress or for the Defense Department to do “a reprogramming action.”
“But I mentioned that either way, there would need to be a notification to Congress,” she said, according to the transcript.
Asked if that happened, Cooper said, “That did not occur.”
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Article URL : https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/pentagon-official-testifies-trump-directed-freeze-on-aid-to-ukraine/ar-BBWBL08