Behind the Ukraine Aid Freeze: 84 Days of Conflict and Confusion The inside story ....

[applegrove]

Behind the Ukraine Aid Freeze: 84 Days of Conflict and Confusion

The inside story of President Trump’s demand to halt military assistance to an ally shows the price he was willing to pay to carry out his agenda.

By Eric Lipton, Maggie Haberman and Mark Mazzetti

Dec. 29, 2019Updated 4:39 p.m. ET

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/29/us/politics/trump-ukraine-military-aid.html#click=https://t.co/XNx42P7HLv

"SNIP.....

WASHINGTON — Deep into a long flight to Japan aboard Air Force One with President Trump, Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, dashed off an email to an aide back in Washington.

“I’m just trying to tie up some loose ends,” Mr. Mulvaney wrote. “Did we ever find out about the money for Ukraine and whether we can hold it back?”

It was June 27, more than a week after Mr. Trump had first asked about putting a hold on security aid to Ukraine, an embattled American ally, and Mr. Mulvaney needed an answer.

......

The New York Times found that some key players are now offering a defense that they did not know the diplomatic push for the investigations was playing out at the same time they were implementing the aid freeze — or if they were aware of both channels, they did not connect the two.

....SNIP"

[demtenjeep]

1. paywall

more please

[applegrove]

2. I can't break DU rules. Maybe others can post 4 paragraphs. Or you can mask your IP address

and get more free articles. I changed the last of the four paragraphs to add more heart to the article.

[swag]

4. Here's a weird source for the whole thing.

https://www.enmnews.com/2019/12/29/behind-the-ukraine-aid-freeze-84-days-of-conflict-and-confusion/

[applegrove]

5. Thanks.

[coeur_de_lion]

9. continued

<<<<snip>>>>
The aide, Robert B. Blair, replied that it would be possible, but not pretty. “Expect Congress to become unhinged” if the White House tried to countermand spending passed by the House and Senate, he wrote in a previously undisclosed email. And, he wrote, it might further fuel the narrative that Mr. Trump was pro-Russia.

Mr. Blair was right, even if his prediction of a messy outcome was wildly understated. Mr. Trump’s order to hold $391 million worth of sniper rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, night vision goggles, medical aid and other equipment the Ukrainian military needed to fight a grinding war against Russian-backed separatists would help pave a path to the president’s impeachment.

The Democratic-led inquiry into Mr. Trump’s dealings with Ukraine this spring and summer established that the president was actively involved in parallel efforts — both secretive and highly unusual — to bring pressure on a country he viewed with suspicion, if not disdain.

One campaign, spearheaded by Rudolph W. Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer, aimed to force Ukraine to conduct investigations that could help Mr. Trump politically, including one focused on a potential Democratic 2020 rival, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. The other, which unfolded nearly simultaneously but has gotten less attention, was the president’s demand to withhold the security assistance. By late summer, the two efforts merged as American diplomats used the withheld aid as leverage in the effort to win a public commitment from the new Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, to carry out the investigations Mr. Trump sought into Mr. Biden and unfounded or overblown theories about Ukraine interfering in the 2016 election.

<<<<snip>>>>
[link:https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/29/us/politics/trump-ukraine-military-aid.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share|

[swag]

3. K&R

Very important article.

Lots of breaking news therein.

[malaise]

6. That's why the MoFo was impeached

He may break all records and be impeached again

[mopinko]

7. is there any mention of what was happening at the pentagon?

if you still have access, i am looking for the name of john rood in this.

eta- or wh policy advisor to pentagon, would be his title.

[applegrove]

8. I'm just about to leave with potluck dinner for my dad in a nursing home.

I will try to look but may not have time. Sorry in advance.

[applegrove]

12. They mention Pentagon officials a few times. But not Rood. Here is a different link.

https://www.enmnews.com/2019/12/29/behind-the-ukraine-aid-freeze-84-days-of-conflict-and-confusion/

[Strelnikov_]

10. . . the price he was willing to pay to carry out (Putin's) agenda . . .

Could weakening Ukraine been one of the objectives?

[kentuck]

11. Very interesting!

Pompeo, Esper, and Bolton wanted him to release the funds and he still refused.

And I did not realize the part played by Rob Portman. I had heard about Ron Johnson. I think it might be a difficult vote for them to not request witnesses in a Senate "trial"? They knew the funds were being withheld.

It does appear that Trump and Rudy were working with the old Russian connections in Ukraine, mostly for the benefit of Putin and Russia?

There is some new info here I had not read about before now.

[moondust]

13. So...

it was all planned and "justified" and wrangled over for a couple months and many in the administration were in on it. If so many including some at the Pentagon knew what was going on is it even possible that some Republicans in Congress weren't in on it or at least knew about it?

Hello Mitch? Lindsey?