DISSENTING OPINIONS

Two OMB Officials Resigned After Ukraine Aid Freeze Concerns: Testimony

A deputy associate director at OMB told lawmakers that two officials voiced their concerns over the withholding of almost $400 million in aid.

Two officials at the White House Office of Management and Budget resigned after expressing concerns over the withholding of U.S. security aid meant for Ukraine, The Washington Post reports. In his Nov. 16 testimony before Congress, Mark Sandy—deputy associate director for national security programs at OMB—told lawmakers one unnamed official from the agency's legal division had a “dissenting opinion” about how the Ukraine aid could be held without violating the law. Another unnamed official who resigned in September had “expressed some frustrations about not understanding the reason for the hold,” Sandy said, according to a transcript of his testimony.

Others who have testified before lawmakers in the impeachment inquiry have said the almost $400 million in aid was contingent on the Ukrainians investigating former Vice President Joe Biden, Biden's son, and a false conspiracy theory surrounding a Democratic National Committee server. The aid was finally released to Ukraine in September, just days after Congress was notified of a whistleblower complaint expressing concerns over Trump's July 25 phone call with the Ukrainian president.