Defense officials hoped Esper might be able to persuade the President to drop the hold, and included their rationale in briefing notes provided to him for an August meeting at the White House. Among the documents is a July 15th email from Defense Department official Laura Cooper , who testified as a witness in the House impeachment inquiry, to Lieutenant General Charles Hooper, Director of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency. That was the same day Trump's decision to withhold nearly $400 million in aid to Ukraine was communicated to the State and Defense departments. A separate readout, shared with various agencies, noted that Mulvaney is "suspending all US security assistance to Ukraine," reportedly at the direction of POTUS. "Trump expressed concern about corruption in Ukraine and Zelensky's ability to deal with it, indicating to OMB officials that we should freeze our security assistance," Cooper's email to Rood added.

Source: CNN February 05, 2020 16:52 UTC