Trump Impeachment: White House Official Confirms Trump Ordered To Withhold Ukraine Aid, Unredacted Data Reveals – By Arthur Villasanta (IB Times) / Jan 2 2020
- Unredacted documents confirm it was Trump that froze military aid for Ukraine
- They show the White House’s public excuse for holding the funds (a policy review) is questionnable
- Documents show Trump froze the funds because he wanted Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to launch a corruption investigation into Joe Biden
New evidence for the first time confirms it was indeed president Donald Trump that directly ordered the withholding of $391 million in Congressionally-mandated military aid for Ukraine.
Unredacted documents obtained by the national security online forum, Just Security, reveal explosive details of events that prove Trump’s direct hand in refusing Ukraine military aid in exchange for its president, Volodymyr Zelensky, launching a corruption investigation into former vice president Joe Biden.
“Clear direction from POTUS to continue to hold,” wrote Michael Duffey, associate director of national security programs at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), to Elaine McCusker, acting Pentagon comptroller, in an Aug. 30 email, according to unredacted documents viewed by Just Security. The organization said this remark was in one of many documents the Trump administration has tried to keep from the public despite congressional oversight efforts and court orders in Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuits.
The documents confirm that hours after Trump’s July 25 call with Zelensky, during which he asked the latter to investigate Biden, Duffey immediately sent an email to top senior defense officials advising the Pentagon to suspend any future military aid for Ukraine.
“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. I understand that DOD will continue its planning and casework during this period and that this brief pause in obligations will not preclude DOD’s timely execution of the final policy direction,” wrote Duffey.
Continue to article: https://www.ibtimes.com/trump-impeachment-white-house-official-confirms-trump-ordered-withhold-ukraine-aid-2895609
