UPDATE 1-Defense Dept official says she never discussed Ukraine aid with Trump

A senior U.S. Department of Defense official testified on Wednesday that she had never discussed a hold on security assistance for Ukraine with President Donald Trump and never heard from him directly on the matter.

Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Laura Cooper testified at a hearing in the impeachment inquiry into Trump. The inquiry has focused on circumstances surrounding the Trump administration's decision last summer to withhold nearly $400 million in security assistance for the government in Kiev. Cooper also said Ukrainian officials had known in July about the holdup in the security aid, which was new information she had not had when she was interviewed behind closed doors.

Cooper said that her staff had received an email on July 25 from the State Department saying that Ukraine's embassy and the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee were asking about security assistance. "On July 25 a member of my staff got a question from a Ukrainian Embassy contact asking what was going on with U.S. security assistance," Cooper told the House Intelligence Committee at the impeachment hearing.

July 25 was the day of a telephone call between Trump and the Ukrainian president in which Trump raised the issues of an investigation of Democratic former Vice President Joe Biden, alleged Ukrainian interference in the 2016 presidential election and the aid. Some Republican lawmakers have sought to minimize the impact of a White House decision to withhold the military aid by saying Ukraine was only aware of the hold for two weeks before the hold was lifted on Sept. 11.

In the Democratic-led impeachment inquiry, investigators are looking into whether Trump withheld the aid in order to pressure Ukraine to launch the investigations. Trump - backed up by most congressional Republicans - denies wrongdoing.

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