MANHATTAN (CN) – Demanding that the White House stop stonewalling the upcoming impeachment trial, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer pointed Monday to new revelations about the government’s delay of military aid following President Trump’s phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“There simply is no good reason why evidence that is directly relevant to the conduct at issue in the articles of impeachment should be withheld from the Senate and the American people,” Schumer wrote in a 4-page letter, which demands three categories of files from the White House, Department of State, and the Office of Management and Budget.
Schumer found support for his requests in a 146-page trove of files that the nonprofit Center on Public Integrity obtained pursuant to a federal court order from its Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.
Those documents included a July 25 message from President Trump’s political appointee at the Office of Management and Budget, Michael Duffey, who relayed a hold order on $391 million in military aid meant to help Ukraine in its hot war with Russia.
In a message time-stamped some 90 minutes after Trump’s call with Zelensky, Duffey wrote: “Based on guidance I have received and in light of the Administration's plan to review assistance to Ukraine, including the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, please hold off on any additional DoD obligations of these funds, pending direction from that process.”
Duffey, who served as the executive director of the Republican Party of Wisconsin before Trump appointed him to his post, warned the four recipients on his email to keep the information under wraps.
“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,” Duffey’s letter concludes.
In a November closed-door deposition, one of the recipients of that message, the agency’s deputy associate for national security programs Mark Sandy, testified that he raised concerns about the legality of that directive.
“I just made a general reference to the Impoundment Control Act,” Sandy told lawmakers on Nov. 16, referring to legislation passed after President Richard Nixon’s impeachment meant to prevent a U.S. president from abusing his power by intruding upon Congress’ power of the purse.
The White House turned over the latest Ukraine emails in a proverbial Friday night news dump this past week, after business hours before Hanukkah and Christmas. This followed weeks of delay after U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ordered release of the records on Nov. 25. But Schumer noted that even these disclosures were pockmarked with black lines.
“The December 21st release of partially-redacted versions of these communications in response to the FOIA lawsuit further underscores why the Senate must review all of these records in unredacted form,” Schumer’s letter states.
