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The emails are the portrait of a corrupt policy and an effort to conceal it — a tug of war between two sets of government officials, one side trying to protect American security and follow the law, another working to enforce direct orders of the President of the United States.
Over the succeeding weeks, OMB and the Pentagon discussed the decision.
Pentagon lawyers and others appeared to grow increasingly anxious. Duffey later writes, “Clear direction from POTUS to hold,” again making it clear this was the President’s doing.
As the clock ticked toward a disbursement deadline, aides increasingly raised the legality of the issue.
And rightly so. The decision didn’t just run against national security, it violated the law.
Under the Impoundment Control Act (ICA), the administration is obligated to spend the money as directed by Congress. If it doesn’t, it is required to inform Congress that it is doing so and why.
In a draft letter by the Pentagon to the OMB, top Defense Department officials noted, “We have repeatedly advised OMB officials” that the suspension of aid jeopardizes “the Department’s ability” to comply with the ICA.
Eventually, the secret came out. Politico broke the story of the aid freeze. Congress began asking questions. Impeachment was on the horizon.
What could be worse than a President sacrificing national security for personal political gain, and violating the law in the process?
The administration has refused to release the documents demanded by Congressional investigators and has tried to prevent key witnesses from testifying. But these emails came after a judge ordered their release in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by the Center for Public Integrity. That’s when the Justice Department tried to have it both ways, releasing the documents but hiding the most incriminating pieces, blacking out big chunks of conversations.
Then came the work of Just Security, the online legal forum, which reviewed the unredacted documents, pulling the pin on this political grenade.
If Trump had a coherent explanation, a viable defense, he would put it forward. He doesn’t. The more we learn, the guiltier he looks. That’s why he blocks every release of information, and his team blacks out key pieces in court-ordered document releases.
The documents curiously show that at no point in the discussions between the officials was there any explanation of why Trump abruptly halted aid. We know why from the White House summary of the call with Zelensky, from Trump’s rants about Biden and Ukraine, from Giuliani’s statements, and from the officials who spoke in the impeachment hearings. Trump, as his own diplomats declared, conditioned the release of the aid on Ukraine announcing an investigation of Biden and his son.
What’s happening in the Middle East matters, but we should not let it divert us from holding this President to account.
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