White House Releases Batch Of Ukraine Aid Documents Minutes Before Deadline - Oversight

The White House's Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has released a huge batch of documents related to US aid to Ukraine in line with American Oversight's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, just minutes before the deadline

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 22nd January, 2020) The White House's Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has released a huge batch of documents related to US aid to Ukraine in line with American Oversight's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, just minutes before the deadline.

"At 11:58 p.m. on Jan. 21 [4:58 GMT, January 22], minutes before the deadline, the Office of Management and Budget released 192 pages of Ukraine-related documents, including records that have not been produced to Congress in its impeachment investigation," the oversight watchdog said on Wednesday.

In a letter, OMB explained that "of those 227 responsive documents," it was releasing "in full or in part 107 documents," adding that the latter included redactions made pursuant to FOIA exemptions.

As for the remaining 120 documents, OMB said that it was withholding them in full pursuant to a FOIA exemption that "protects deliberative, attorney-client, and Presidential communications, the disclosure of which would inhibit the frank and candid exchange of views that is necessary for effective government decision-making."

Trump is currently facing an impeachment trial over his alleged attempt to solicit foreign interference in the 2020 campaign by pressuring Ukraine to investigate possible corruption of his political rival Joe Biden and the latter's son Hunter.