According to newly released documents, the White House moved to freeze military aid to Ukraine less than two hours after President Donald Trump’s July 25th call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The documents were obtained with a FOIA request by the Center for Public Integrity and published Friday night.
“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, an Office of Management and Budget official, wrote in a July 25 email to OMB and Pentagon officials. “Given the sensitive nature of the request, I appreciate your keeping that information closely held to those who need to know to execute direction.”
On September 11, Duffey wrote another email informing Department of Defense Comptroller Elaine McCusker that the aid would be released. He said that he was “glad to have this behind us.”
The documents add more clarity to the timeline of the Ukraine pressure campaign and to events specifically occurring around the July 25 call, which touched off the whistleblower complaint and eventually, entire impeachment inquiry. Trump has continued to insist, despite multiple witness testimonies, that there was no quid pro quo, or exchange of bogus investigations that he pushed for from Zelensky on the call for the $391 million in military aid.
Could this have happened any other way? Perfect call…perfect call…perfect. Their lying is so brazen, so shameless. Nothing is beneath them.
My theory is that Trump recently received the following instruction from his Kremlin handler: “Just reminding you that we can release the tape at any moment, and to prove to us that you understand this message you must publicly state that you need to flush a toilet ten times. We await your compliance.”
in other words, keep everyone who is involved in Ukraine policy in the dark about this, because what is being done is completely illegitimate and contrary to stated US policy.
The longer Nancy postpones transferring the articles of impeachment, the more we’ll see little gems like this.
This is why Mitch doesn’t want witnesses or anything other than a sham trial, because the evidence is beyond compelling.
But, meanwhile, Trump won’t accept anything less than a complete exoneration -though none exists. Pelosi knows this and will allow Trump to force Mitch’s hand, which will only help Dems and hurt vulnerable Republicans.