US security assistance to Ukraine was formally frozen 90 minutes after the July 25 call between Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the catalyst for Trump’s impeachment.
Trump, seeking Kiev’s investigations to tarnish Presidential candidate Joe Biden and to cover up Russia’s involvement in the 2016 US election, ordered the suspension days before the call. It was announced at a meeting on July 18, with White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney saying it was Trump’s command.
Pentagon e-mails confirm that the Office of Management and Budget issued the command just after Trump told Zelenskiy, “A lot of people want to find out about [Biden] so whatever you can do with the [US] Attorney General would be great.”
See also TrumpWatch, Day 1,065: White House Forces Withdrawal of Ukraine Aid from Spending Bill
Michael Duffey, Trump’s top political appointee in the OMB, told the Pentagon to say nothing about the freeze of $391 million mandated by Congress. He cited the “sensitive nature of the request”.
The Trump-Zelenskiy call led to a formal complaint by the CIA liaison with the White House over Ukraine. That sparked House hearings in which documents and 17 current and former US officials — defying a White House command to defy subpoenas — established a 10-month campaign by Trump and his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani for the investigations.
On Wednesday the House impeached Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. He will now be on trial in the Senate, possibly in January.
The released e-mails were in 146 pages of documents given to the Center for Public Integrity on Friday, in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.
Trump’s half-hour call with Zelenskiy ended at 9:33 a.m. Duffey e-mailed Pentagon officials at 11:04 a.m.:
Please hold off on any additional DoD obligations of these funds, pending direction from that process….
Given the sensitive nature of the request, I appreciate your keeping that information closely held to those who need to know to execute the direction.
A “senior administration official” insisted that the timing of the call and Duffey’s e-mail was coincidental.
An earlier e-mail from Duffey confirmed the testimony of OMB official Mark Sandy that reports that Trump began asking aides about military aid set aside for Ukraine after he noticed a June 19 article in the Washington Examiner.
On the same day, Duffey wrote the Pentagon comptroller: “The President has asked about this funding release, and I have been tasked to follow-up with someone over there to get more detail.”
Officials testified in the House hearings that they learned of the aid freeze in early July. According to the National Security Council’s Fiona Hill, National Security Advisor John Bolton angrily spoke on July 10 about the Mulvaney-Giuliani “drug deal” and consulted NSC lawyers.
But Duffey’s e-mail to the Pentagon reconfirmed Trump’s demand.
The freeze was only lifted on September 11, after Congress was formally notified of the CIA officer’s complaint over the Trump-Zelenskiy call.
