Article snippet: A top career Defense Department official described to House impeachment investigators her dismay over the summer’s delay of U.S. military aid to Ukraine, painting a portrait of a Pentagon doing battle with the White House over the release of funding deemed “vital” to national security. Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary Laura Cooper, who testified late last month, said that she took part in her agency’s review of Ukraine’s progress in combating corruption, in which officials concluded that "sufficient progress has been made." Despite this assessment, top officials in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), guided by MORE, felt otherwise. Cooper testified that it was felt unanimously except for OMB that Ukraine was making progress in combating corruption. She also said OMB was reflecting the views of "higher-level" guidance, a likely reference to Trump. “It was unanimous with the exception of the statements by OMB representatives, and those statements were relaying higher-level guidance,” she told investigators behind closed doors on Oct. 23, according to a transcript of her testimony released Monday evening. When Cooper sought clarification over why the aid was withheld, she said the White House initially declined to give it. That aid was "vital,” she said, “to helping the Ukrainians be able to defend themselves” from aggression from neighboring Russia. Russia had invaded Crimea in 2014, and the Pentagon deemed the aid crucial in bolstering Ukraine’s hand du... Link to the full article to read more