OMB filing reveals Trump involved in discussions on Ukraine aid as early as June

[Mrs. Overall]

Source: CNN

The Department of Justice revealed in a court filing late Friday that it has two dozen emails related to the President Donald Trump's involvement in the withholding of millions in security assistance to Ukraine -- a disclosure that came just hours after the Senate voted against subpoenaing additional documents and witnesses in Trump's impeachment trial, paving the way for his acquittal.

The filing, released near midnight Friday, marks the first official acknowledgment from the Trump administration that emails about the President's thinking related to the aid exist, and that he was directly involved in asking about and deciding on the aid as early as June. The administration is still blocking those emails from the public and has successfully kept them from Congress.

A lawyer with the Office of Management and Budget wrote to the court that 24 emails between June and September 2019 -- including an internal discussion among DOD officials called "POTUS follow-up" on June 24 -- should stay confidential because the emails describe "communications by either the President, the Vice President, or the President's immediate advisors regarding Presidential decision-making about the scope, duration, and purpose of the hold on military assistance to Ukraine."

Trump's decision to withhold nearly $400 million in US military aid to Ukraine as he pressed the country to investigate Hunter Biden and Joe Biden, his potential 2020 general election rival, are at the center of the President's impeachment trial. Trump and his allies have repeatedly made unfounded and false claims to allege that the Bidens acted corruptly in Ukraine.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/01/politics/trump-ukraine-aid-emails-omb-justice-department/index.html

[Pachamama]

1. There will be more and more coming to light and the truth will be revealed

[PatSeg]

2. Yes

I think it is inevitable. There were far too many people involved and Trump tends to be very careless and reckless. He can't silence everyone and with the way he throws people under the bus, some are bound to turn against him. He tries to use the same mob-like tactics in the White House as he did in Trump Tower, but this is a much larger stage and he is not equipped to control it. Could be why he keeps going into meltdown mode.

[mwb970]

3. More information and revelations like this will emerge in the weeks and months to come.

Each one will make the trump party Senators look worse and worse for acquitting their King in a sham farce "trial".

And then we vote.

[Mr. Ected]

4. I can assure you, the Trump administration has committed more crimes than just Ukraine

We can continue to add to the charges as evidence comes out, but there will be more, much more, coming to our attention in the coming months.

[Still In Wisconsin]

5. Not to be a Debbie Downer, but how does any of this matter now?

Under the Dershowitz Precedent, a US President can do anything he wants to so long as his actions are intended to aid his own re-election, believing this to be in the best interest of the nation.

[riversedge]

8. I really do not know anymore.

[orleans]

6. the words "vice president" jump out at me

if i remember correctly (and maybe i am getting shit mixed up) but didn't sondland say he said/told pence something and pence didn't reply, he just kind of nodded like he understood?

when he said that i thought: that's not such a big deal--maybe he looked at him and kind of nodded just to get rid of him but not necessarily that he understood.

lol -- but now he was in the email chain. which leads me to believe: he absolutely understood.

[NoMoreRepugs]

7. The jerkoff rethuglican senators are going to do what

they are going to do NOW. The key to November is WHAT will continue to be put in front of the American electorate. If it’s a veritable mountain of facts about wrongdoing that rethugs were aware of and did nothing about it WILL influence the Independent electorate - that’s who is going to decide the fate of our Republic.

[Evolve Dammit]

9. They just coughed these up after to vote on Friday?? How convenient...

[crickets]

10. +1

[DallasNE]

11. Of Course It Does

This was the whole point of the email - to discuss the "scope, duration, and purpose of the hold". But covering up a criminal matter is not covered by confidentiality rules so the request to keep hidden should be denied.

[the emails describe "communications by either the President, the Vice President, or the President's immediate advisors regarding Presidential decision-making about the scope, duration, and purpose of the hold on military assistance to Ukraine."]

[truthisfreedom]

12. We know what you did last summer.