Another Ukrainian Shoe Drops
Oh look, new emails:
Shortly after President Donald Trump spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on July 25, Trump’s political appointees were already tasked with carrying out a freeze on security funding for Ukraine, newly released government documents show.
“Based on guidance I have received and in light of the Administration’s plan to review assistance to Ukraine, including the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, please hold off on any additional DoD obligations of these funds, pending direction from that process,” Mike Duffey, the White House official in the Office of Management and Budget responsible for overseeing national security money and a Trump political appointee, wrote to select OMB and Pentagon officials on July 25.
Duffey’s email suggests that he knew the hold could raise concerns.
“Given the sensitive nature of the request, I appreciate your keeping that information closely held to those who need to know to execute direction,” Duffey said…Though these releases have been heavily redacted, they begin to shade in more detail about officials’ exchanges regarding the Ukraine aid pause, which House Democrats pursued as they investigated and impeached the President but could not access because of the White House’s refusal to comply with congressional subpoenas.
The Center for Public Integrity points out that there was much concern about the illegality of withholding aid because it violated the Impoundment Act which precludes the president from doing such a thing. Why the House didn’t add this to the list of crimes in the Articles is unknown, but I would guess this is the reason Michael Duffy is on he list of witnesses Schumer has said they want to call.
The big question remains: Did Putin tell Trump that Ukraine did the hacking in 2016 to frame Russia and him on behalf of Hillary Clinton (which makes little sense since it required hacking herself but whatever) and he believed it? Is he that dimwitted? Or does he just pretend to believe it because he and Putin are scratching each others backs? Does it even matter?
These documents make it even clearer that he saw Ukraine as a pawn in his and Rudy’s scheme. When he saw the article about the military aid in the Examiner he realized he had more leverage than just a White House meeting and he immediately used it. He was not Putin’s puppet, at least not in this case.
In other words it was his idea.
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