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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMick Mulvaney Confesses OMB and DOD Are Withholding Evidence of a Crime from Congress
Mick Mulvaney Confesses OMB and DOD Are Withholding Evidence of a Crime from Congress
https://www.emptywheel.net/2019/10/17/mick-mulvaney-confesses-omb-and-dod-are-withholding-evidence-of-a-crime-from-congress/
Amid the tsunami of alarming news Mick Mulvaney made at todays press conference (Trump is holding the G-7 at Doral next year, he likely will invite Putin, Trump did engage in a quid pro quo with Volodymyr Zelensky on his July 25 call), one of the more important admissions got missed.
Mick Mulvaney admitted that the White House would have been breaking the law by withholding Ukrainian security funds because it did not have a really really good reason not to do it.
<<snip>>
On September 5, 2019, Chairman Eliot L. Engel and Ranking Member Michael McCaul of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs wrote a letter to OMB urging the Trump Administration to lift its hold on security funds to support Ukraine, writing: These funds, which were appropriated by Congress as Foreign Military Financing and as part of the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative and signed into law by the President, are essential to advancing U.S. national security interests.On September 9, 2019, the Committees on Intelligence,
Foreign Affairs, and Oversight wrote to the White House requesting documents related to the actual or potential suspension of security assistance to Ukraine. The White House never responded to this request. However, two days later, on September 11, 2019, the White House released its hold on the military assistance to Ukraine.
On September 24, 2019, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell stated that, although he was very actively involved in advocating the aid, he was not given an explanation about why it was being withheld, even though he talked to the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of State. He stated: I have no idea what precipitated the delay.
The enclosed subpoena demands documents that are necessary for the Committees to examine the sequences of these events and the reasons behind the White Houses decision to withhold critical military assistance to Ukraine that was appropriated by Congress to counter Russian aggression.
Thats the subpoena that Mulvaneys agency and DOD (the latter, after initially saying it would cooperate) are defying. Its a subpoena that goes to the zenith of Congress authority, whether it is issued within or outside of an impeachment inquiry. But within an impeachment inquiry, it illustrates that on one issue of fact at the core of the investigation, there is bipartisan agreement that the White House was in the wrong.
And today, Mulvaney admitted that the White House did not have a very very good reason to withhold those funds, even while confirming that Trump was withholding the funds, in part, to extort a quid pro quo.
brewens
(13,623 posts)Nevilledog
(51,201 posts)Why is no one asking what the "other" part was?. For what other possible reason was the aid withheld?
DallasNE
(7,403 posts)Trump wants the DNC server from 2016 that Ukraine is rumored in some circles to have. And Trump wants dirt on the Biden's for the 2020 election.
Nevilledog
(51,201 posts)DallasNE
(7,403 posts)The two parts I mentioned earlier turn out to be two sides of the same quid pro quo coin. This link describes the 2nd quid pro quo and I was unaware of it when I posted earlier. It too is 2020 election related dirt on the Biden's. And it is pure corruption.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/the-debunked-biden-allegations-are-incredibly-useful-to-dmitry-firtash
WyattKansas
(1,648 posts)But but but if you admit to it in the open, there isn't anything wrong or unlawful.
uponit7771
(90,364 posts)... while there were better accommodations closer to the airport.
This is getting disgusting, not good.