Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) has been agitating for House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff (D-CA) to release the transcript of the closed door testimony of White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) official Mark Sandy.

It just dropped and we can see why Schiff may have sat on it.

Sandy provided the reason for why aid was held up that blows apart the Schiff narrative and is completely consistent with everything we’ve seen from how President Donald Trump works.

Sandy explained that the only reason he was told that aid was temporarily frozen was because of other countries not contributing more to Ukraine.

Q: Okay. At any point in time, from the moment that you walked into the SCIF to anytime in history, has Mr. Duffey even provided to you a reason why the President wanted to place a hold on security assistance?
A: I recall in early September an email that attributed the hold to the President’s concern about other countries not contributing more to Ukraine.

This is consistent with what he said to President Zelensky on July 25, where he mentioned that Germany and other European countries weren’t doing their fair share to help.

It’s consistent with how Trump has approached NATO and the UN, to hold or talk about holding American aid until other countries kick in with their shares.

The aid was ultimately given to Ukraine and there was not in fact any lag in them getting it. But Democrats tried to argue that the aid was held until Ukrainians agreed to investigate the Bidens. But no witness actually supported the claim that Trump conditioned aid on investigations, indeed they all said they were never told any quid pro quo from Trump.

But this release certainly kills the Schiff claim that that the freeze was because of investigations, as Rep. Zeldin points out.

Mark Sandy is a dedicated, career public servant who came to Schiff's Capitol basement bunker to answer under oath why there was a hold on US aid to Ukraine. He said the definitive answer from OMB was ENTIRELY about the President's desire for other countries to contribute more.

— Lee Zeldin (@RepLeeZeldin) November 26, 2019

The transcript for OMB’s Mark Sandy was just released. The ONLY reason he was ever given why there was a hold on $ to Ukraine was “the President’s concern about other countries not contributing more to Ukraine.” NOT bribery. NOT quid pro quo or any other WACKY Schiff conspiracy!

— Lee Zeldin (@RepLeeZeldin) November 26, 2019