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The GAO ruling will also force the White House further into crisis mode. It is difficult to keep count of the number of times that many among us assumed there was enough solid evidence to turn the legal and political tide against Trump. But each time it looked like the administration was pushed to the edge of the cliff, it has managed to slip away in the court of public opinion.
But we may be getting to the point where even the Teflon President can’t wriggle free.
There was also Wednesday’s damning CNN and MSNBC interviews with one of the many shady characters circling the Ukraine scandal, Lev Parnas, who said Trump knew “exactly what was going on” with the efforts to pressure Ukraine into an investigation against former Vice President Joe Biden and his son. All these developments seem certain to further catapult the news cycle away from the crisis in the Middle East back to the machinations of an administration that behaves as if it is beyond reproach.
The GAO, a nonpartisan watchdog that reports to Congress, said that the White House budget office violated the Impoundment Control Act, which limits the White House from withholding funds that Congress has appropriated.
“Faithful execution of the law does not permit the President to substitute his own policy priorities for those that Congress has enacted into law,” the GAO wrote.
The White House has dismissed the GAO decision.
Reaction in Ukraine:
But it will likely come as a relief to Ukrainian officials, who have largely remained silent throughout the entire Trump-Ukraine scandal, worried about upsetting the bipartisan support in Congress that Ukraine has traditionally relied on.
Immediately after the London meeting, Ukraine Foreign Affairs Minister Vadym Prystaiko told me: “We need all the aid we can have — from the United States or anywhere else.”
The GAO ruling, coming after two weeks of impeachment hearings and 30 hours of testimony from 12 witnesses before the Democratic-led House, stands as a powerful indictment against the Trump White House.
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