Pentagon officials deemed withholding of aid to Ukraine was illegal

[RandySF]

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon was confused. Hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine had been appropriated in late 2018 by Congress, intended to help fend off aggression by neighboring Russia. But well into 2019, as summer was edging toward autumn, the funds had still not moved.

Department of Defense officials began to worry that the funds would never make it to Ukraine, since the appropriations would expire with the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30. They even began to prepare a legal challenge to the freezing of the funds, leading to an unprecedented fight within the Trump administration.

Since then, the Ukraine affair has turned into an impeachment inquiry that could see President Trump removed from office. But it is also an example of yet another federal agency — this time, the Pentagon — caught off-guard by the president’s political imperatives.

Before impeachment was ever an issue, the military funding for Ukraine seemed a settled matter. In late May, John Rood, an undersecretary of defense for policy, sent a letter to Congress outlining at great length the kinds of weapons, defense systems and other forms of aid Ukraine could expect. Theses included everything from radars to demining vehicles to rifle sights to training for that country’s military.

“Implementation of this further support will begin no sooner than 15 days following this notification,” Rood wrote. He added, a little later in the document, that the U.S. “remains committed” to helping Ukraine “defend its territorial integrity.”

But that commitment would waver drastically in the months to come, causing anxiety and puzzlement both in the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill, and putting military officials into a confrontation with other members of the Trump administration, who were seemingly more intent on carrying out the president’s political goals than in helping a foreign ally.



https://news.yahoo.com/pentagon-officials-deemed-withholding-of-aid-to-ukraine-was-illegal-090046566.html

[DURHAM D]

1. Why did they show up for this ?

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100212564229

Shame

[blaze]

2. So. Russell Vought at the OMB was holding up Ukraine $$$

There's another name for us all to google.

From the OP link (great article, btw)

"In fact, Rood’s letter from May had outlined meticulously the military portion of the aid package. But OMB seemed unsatisfied. Officials from the budget office were “almost fishing for reasons” to keep the money from making its way to Kiev, according to the congressional aides familiar with the matter.

An important but little-known branch of the White House, the OMB is headed by Russell Vought, formerly an executive at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative organization with deep roots within the Trump administration. He succeeded Mick Mulvaney, the former tea party congressman who is now Trump’s chief of staff."