Laura Cooper, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia, arrives on Capitol Hill before attending a closed-door deposition, on October 30, 2019 in Washington, DC. Mark Wilson/Getty Images

A Pentagon official testified to Congress that President Donald Trump ordered that aid to Ukraine be frozen and that Ukrainian officials knew about it earlier than he has acknowledged, according to transcripts released Monday.

Trump has denied that he abused his office in seeking for Ukraine to investigate Democrats or in freezing aid to Ukraine.

The official, Laura Cooper, told lawmakers that in conversations with officials it emerged that Ukraine knew about the aid freeze, strengthening the argument that it was being deployed as leverage.

She also said that in a conversation with Kurt Volker, then the US special envoy to Ukraine, he said that aid would be reinstated in Ukraine announced the investigations Trump sought.

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In transcripts of her testimony to the House impeachment investigation released Monday, a senior Pentagon official responsible for Ukraine provided evidence that further damaged President Donald Trump’s central impeachment defense.

Trump maintains that his request for Ukraine to announce investigations into Democrats and his decision to freeze military aid to Ukraine were not linked. Specifically, the president and his allies have said that freezing aid could not have been part of a bid to broker a „quid pro quo“ because Ukraine did not know the aid had been frozen.

But Laura Cooper, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia and Ukraine, testified that in conversations with Kurt Volker, then the US special envoy to Ukraine, and Bill Taylor, the acting Ukraine ambassador, it became clear to her that Ukraine did know about the aid freeze before it was first reported in the press on August 29.

„I knew from my Kurt Volker conversation and also from sort of the alarm bells that were coming from Ambassador Taylor and his team that there were Ukrainians who knew about this,“ she testified, according to the transcript.

She also described a conversation with Volker on August 20 in which the subject of the aid freeze was raised, recalling that Volker said a Ukrainian announcement along the lines requested by Trump could see it lifted.

„So in that meeting he did mention something to me that, you know, was the first about somehow an effort that he was engaged in to see if there was a statement that the government of Ukraine would make that would somehow disavow any interference in US elections and would commit to the prosecution of any individuals involved in election interference,“ she said.

„And that was about as specific as it got.“

Cooper’s testimony, which took place October 23 for the three House committees leading the impeachment inquiry into Trump, also described the chain of events that saw nearly $400 million in military aid to Ukraine frozen over the summer, and the alarms this raised among senior officials.

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Laura Cooper’s testimony reveals how Trump froze Congressionally-approved aid to Ukraine. Cooper raised concerns about this hold, as did others.

She also told us how Volker implied the hold might be resolved if the Ukrainians issued a statement.

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She told lawmakers that in a July 23 meeting she attended the Office of Management and Budget informed agencies that „the White House chief of staff has conveyed that the president has concerns about Ukraine and Ukraine security assistance.“

Two days later, the phone call that sparked a whistleblower complaint and the impeachment investigation took place.

During the call, Trump requested that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky investigate former Vice President Joe Biden — a contender for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination — as well as a conspiracy theory involving the 2016 US elections.

Central to Democrats‘ investigation is the allegation that Trump deliberately withheld the aid to get Ukraine to buckle to his demand for investigations.

Joe Biden Photo by Sean Rayford/Getty Images

Trump and his Republican allies have denied that Trump abused his power or that his requests were directly linked to his decision to freeze Ukraine’s aid.

Trump in September told reporters that he froze the Ukraine aid before his call with Zelensky to encourage the country to take measures to combat corruption.

In her testimony, Cooper said the aid freeze was confirmed to her in a July 26 meeting — and that both military and humanitarian aid had been held back.

„Immediately deputies began to raise concerns about how this could be done in a legal fashion,“ Cooper said. „The comments in the room at the deputies‘ level reflected a sense that there was not an understanding of how this could legally play out.“