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FILE PHOTO: Mark Sandy, official of the Office of Management and Budget, arrives for a closed-door deposition as part of the House of Representatives impeachment inquiry into U.S. President Trump on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., November 16, 2019. REUTERS/Yara Nardi

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An attorney for the White Houses budget office resigned in part because of concerns over the hold on U.S. military aid to Ukraine, an official for the office said according to a transcript of his deposition released on Tuesday.

Mark Sandy, a career official at the Office of Management and Budget, which ordered the hold on security assistance to Ukraine, told congressional investigators during the House of Representatives impeachment inquiry that a person in the offices legal division resigned in part over issues with the hold.

Reporting by Jonathan Landay; Writing by Makini Brice; Editing by Eric Beech

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White House budget office attorney resigned in part over Ukraine aid hold: official - Reuters

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In the phone call at the center of the impeachment inquiry, President Trump asked Ukraine for two different investigations. Today, we explore the unexpected story behind one of them.

Scott Shane contributed reporting.

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Why Trump Still Believes (Wrongly) That Ukraine Hacked the D.N.C. - The New York Times

Rudy Giuliani offered to help an indicted Ukrainian oligarch with his U.S. legal problems if he, in turn, helped with Giulianis pressure campaign on the Ukrainian government, according to the oligarch. Dmytro Firtash, an energy tycoon linked to the Kremlin whos facing extradition to the U.S. on bribery and racketeering charges, spoke to The New York Times. Firtash claims that, in June, he met with Giuliani associates Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, who offered help with his Justice Department problems if he hired two lawyers close to President TrumpJoseph diGenova and Victoria Toensingand helped with Giulianis dirt-digging mission on the Biden familys activities in Ukraine. Parnas lawyer has confirmed his client met Firtash at Giulianis request, and encouraged the oligarch to help in the hunt for compromising information as part of any potential resolution to his extradition matter. Firtash said he had no information about the Bidens and hadnt paid for the search for it. Without my will and desire... I was sucked into this internal U.S. fight, he said.

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Oligarch: Giuliani Offered to Help With Legal Problems, if I Helped Pressure Ukraine - The Daily Beast

Mr. Trump repeated the baseless claim on Friday in an interview with Fox & Friends, laying out the narrative and doubling down after a host gently pressed him on whether he was sure of one aspect of the debunked theory, that the F.B.I. gave a Democratic server to what Mr. Trump had inaccurately described as a Ukrainian-owned company.

That is what the word is, Mr. Trump replied.

Some Republicans have also focused on Hunter Biden, raising questions about whether his hiring by the Ukrainian energy company Burisma was corrupt. Burisma hired Mr. Biden while his father, former Vice President Joseph Biden Jr., a potential rival of Mr. Trumps in the 2020 election, was leading the Obama administrations Ukraine policy. On the July 25 call, Mr. Trump also demanded Mr. Zelensky investigate Burisma and Hunter Biden.

Moscow has long used its intelligence agencies and propaganda machine to muddy the waters of public debate, casting doubts over established facts. In her testimony, Dr. Hill noted Russias pattern of trying to blame other countries for its own actions, like the attempted poisoning last year of a former Russian intelligence officer or the downing of a passenger jet over Ukraine in 2014. Moscows goal is to cast doubt on established facts, said current and former officials.

The strategy is simply to create the impression that it is not really possible to know who was really behind it, said Laura Rosenberger, the director of the Alliance for Defending Democracy, which tracks Russian disinformation efforts.

Although American intelligence agencies have made no formal classified assessment about the Russian disinformation campaign against Ukraine, officials at several of the agencies have broadly agreed for some time that Russian intelligence services have embraced tactics to shift responsibility for the 2016 interference campaign away from themselves, officials said.

Russia has relentlessly tried to deflect attention since the allegations of its interference campaign in the 2016 election first surfaced, one official said.

Mr. Putin began publicly pushing false theories of Ukrainian interference in the early months of 2017 to deflect responsibility from Russia, said Senator Angus King, independent of Maine and a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, who declined to answer questions about the briefing.

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Charges of Ukrainian Meddling? A Russian Operation, U.S. Intelligence Says - The New York Times

Ukraines president will emerge from the Donald Trump impeachment inquiry unscathed, the countrys prime minister has predicted.

Ukraines leadership has been anxious to avoid becoming embroiled in the US political dogfight over the pressure allegedly placed on President Volodymyr Zelenskiy by Trump and his associates to announce an investigation into Burisma, a gas company with ties to the former Democratic vice-president Joe Bidens son, Hunter.

Democrats are seeking to prove Trump withheld aid to Ukraine until Zelenskiy complied with his demand to dig for dirt on Biden.

David Holmes, a state department official, told House impeachment investigators that the US ambassador to the EU, Gordon Sondland, held a one-to-one meeting with Zelenskiys close aide Andriy Yermak in Kyiv on 26 July, following which Sondland was overheard telling Trump President Zelenskiy loves your ass and would do anything Trump asked. Sondland claimed that other US officials were excluded from the Yermak meeting at the instruction of the Ukrainians, according to Holmes.

Speaking in London, Honcharuk said he had no private knowledge of the Burisma situation but that he was sure that the impeachment inquiry would show Zelenskiy was never part of any attempt to manipulate investigations.

Appointed in August, the 39-year-old Honcharuk emphasised the need for international support in Ukraines fight against corruption.

In her testimony to the impeachment inquiry on Thursday, the White Houses former top expert on Russia Fiona Hill said the fight against corruption was being undermined by a separate foreign policy conducted by Trumps personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, and other allies of the president.

Honcharuk sought to reassure those who were sceptical that Zelenskiy was freeing his government of oligarch influence, and insisted money illegally obtained by oligarchs would never be returned to them.

Zelenskiy has been accused of still being under the influence of oligarchs, especially the Cypriot-Ukranian billionaire Ihor Kolomoisky, who owns the TV station that used to run Zelenskiy old television show. Zelenskys chief of staff, Andriy Bohdan, also represented Kolomoisky in legal disputes concerning PrivatBank, the largest commercial bank in Ukraine.

The court of appeal in London last month upheld an asset freeze imposed against Kolomoisky and Gennadiy Bogolyubov, the former owners of PrivatBank in 2017. The court also allowed the bank to pursue claims against the two men. PrivatBank was nationalised in December 2016 after regulators found a $5.5bn (4.3bn) hole in its balance sheet, much of it allegedly stemming from fraudulent and related-party lending.

The bank is under new management and is trying to recover through English and US courts assets it says were stolen by the previous owners. Kolomoisky is seeking the overturn of the 2016 nationalisation in Ukrainian courts.

Kolomoskiy and Bogolyubov have denied any allegations of wrongdoing in relation to PrivatBank. Kolomoskiy has previously dismissed the allegations as nonsense.

Honcharuk said: I am sure the president knows that the case is outstanding for the rest of the world and for the Ukraine itself. This is a pre-eminent issue for Ukraine. That is why we stand firmly on the position that neither the bank itself nor the money should be returned to the former investors that is our clear position.

Honcharuk said he expected a top line agreement between the International Monetary Fund and Ukraine to replace a $3.9bn stand-by facility to be ready very soon. The IMF is demanding signals that Ukraine is on the path to irreversible reform, including an independent judiciary rule of law and anti-corruption bureau.

Honcharuk said no vested interests had been involved in the budget recently agreed by the parliament at record speed.

He also claimed the incredible pace of reform meant influential groups feel very bad and that is why they are speaking in pubic broadcast interviews, and in media, but this only demonstrates that these people pretend they are still influential when that is no longer the case.

He said there would be no attempt to appease any vested interest, adding the biggest value the government needed to create was trust.

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Zelenskiy will emerge from Trump inquiry unscathed, says Ukraine PM - The Guardian