Trump ordered hold on military aid days before calling Ukrainian president, officials say

[CuriousAsterisk]

Source: Washington Post

President Trump told his acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, to hold back almost $400 million in military aid for Ukraine at least a week before a phone call in which Trump is said to have pressured the Ukrainian president to investigate the son of former vice president Joe Biden, according to three senior administration officials.

Officials at the Office of Management and Budget relayed Trump’s order to the State Department and the Pentagon during an interagency meeting in mid-July, according to officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. They explained that the president had “concerns” and wanted to analyze whether the money needed to be spent.

Administration officials were instructed to tell lawmakers that the delays were part of an “interagency process” but to give them no additional information — a pattern that continued for nearly two months, until the White House released the funds on the night of Sept. 11.

Trump’s order to withhold aid to Ukraine a week before his July 25 call with Volodymyr Zelensky is likely to raise questions about the motivation for his decision and fuel suspicions on Capitol Hill that Trump sought to leverage congressionally approved aid to damage a political rival. The revelation comes as lawmakers clash with the White House over a related whistleblower complaint made by an intelligence official alarmed by Trump’s actions.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/trump-ordered-hold-on-military-aid-days-before-calling-ukrainian-president-officials-say/2019/09/23/df93a6ca-de38-11e9-8dc8-498eabc129a0_story.html

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Oh boy...here we go...

[bagimin]

1. drip......drip.......

[Botany]

7. Maybe a little more than a drip

[Cha]

2. Nice of them to tell the truth..

[salin]

3. Damning - if folks pay attention. Due to divided media bubbles I fear we are in a moment like the..

"if a tree falls in the woods and no one is there to hear it - did it really fall?" - for the 40% that loves Trump.

[mopinko]

4. released on 9-11, congress started asking about the whisteblower 9/9.

bill weld is on fire on msnbc.

[mysteryowl]

5. Hmmm... I think they might call this extortion.

[EveHammond13]

11. this money is allocated by CONGRESS for National Security - not a chip at trump's casino

[ffr]

6. How many holes in this dike are now gushing?

[orangecrush]

8. GAMETIME!

. . . .

"White House spokesman Hogan Gidley rejected claims that Trump was engaged in a quid pro quo. “But because the media wants this story to be true so badly, they’ll once again manufacture a frenzy and drive ignorant, fake stories to attack this president,” Gidley said.

It appears the Ukrainian leader came away from the discussion with a different impression. Murphy, who spoke with Zelensky during an early September visit to Ukraine, said Monday that the Ukrainian president “directly” expressed concerns at their meeting that “the aid that was being cut off to Ukraine by the president was a consequence” of his unwillingness to launch an investigation into the Bidens."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/trump-ordered-hold-on-military-aid-days-before-calling-ukrainian-president-officials-say/2019/09/23/df93a6ca-de38-11e9-8dc8-498eabc129a0_story.html

[yonder]

9. Oh boy is right. Sounds like someone was setting it up.

Especially if shown to be a non-routine "hold back".

[Gothmog]

10. I love the little cannon-BOOM

Link to tweet

Trump ordered hold on military aid days before calling Ukrainian president, officials say
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/trump-ordered-hold-on-military-aid-days-before-calling-ukrainian-president-officials-say/2019/09/23/df93a6ca-de38-11e9-8dc8-498eabc129a0_story.html

President Trump told his acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, to hold back almost $400 million in military aid for Ukraine at least a week before a phone call in which Trump is said to have pressured the Ukrainian president to investigate the son of former vice president Joe Biden, according to three senior administration officials.

Officials at the Office of Management and Budget relayed Trump’s order to the State Department and the Pentagon during an interagency meeting in mid-July, according to officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. They explained that the president had “concerns” and wanted to analyze whether the money needed to be spent.

Administration officials were instructed to tell lawmakers that the delays were part of an “interagency process” but to give them no additional information — a pattern that continued for nearly two months, until the White House released the funds on the night of Sept. 11.

[Lock him up.]

12. three senior administration officials (...)

One would think they probably have enough of that screaming moron since quite some time...

[DesertRat]

13. Here we go. They're ratting out his bribery.