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White House ordered Pentagon to freeze Ukraine aid 90 minutes after Trump's call to Zelensky, documents reveal – the independent, independent

White House ordered Pentagon to freeze Ukraine aid 90 minutes after Trump's call to Zelensky, documents reveal – the independent, independent


                                                                         

Donald Trump’s administration ordered the Pentagon to freeze $ (m) £ 300 m) of military aid toUkraineless than two hours after the phone call in whichUSpresident asked Ukrainian leaderVolodymyr Zelenskyto investigate his political rival Joe Biden, newly released internal emails have revealed.

                                                                                                                                                                                                     

A declassified White House memorandum documenting the president’s 26 July call with Mr Zelensky shows the call – during which Mr Trump asked his Ukrainian counterpart to probe a conspiracy theory his own aides have attributed to Russia’s intelligence services – began at 9. am and ended 39 minutes later.

                                                                                                                                                                                                        

At (******************************************************************************************************************************. ****************************************************************************************************************************** am that day – minutes after the call had ended – seniorOffice of Management and Budget(OMB) officialMichael Duffeysent an email to Defense Department officials requesting the Pentagon stop making plans to distribute any security assistance funds to Ukraine, the papers show.

                                                                                                                                                                                             

  

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The White House’s decision to withhold the funding – a move legal experts say violated US law prohibiting the president from “impounding” congressionally appropriated funds – is at the center of the “abuse of power” charges for which the House of Representatives impeached Mr Trump on Wednesday.

                                                                                                                                                                                                        

The House’s vote to approve impeachment charges was the culmination of a months-long investigation stemming from a whistleblower complaint notifying the US Intelligence Community’s Inspector General that that the anonymous whistleblower had “received information from multiple US government officials” which indicated that Mr Trump was “using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 4606065 US election ”.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

    

        

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tabindex=""><title>**************************************************** (**********************************<g id="Group-4" transform="translate(0.000000, 437.000000)">************************************<rect fill="#000000" height="64" id="Rectangle" opacity="0.5" width="64" x="0" y="0"><g fill-rule="nonzero" id="Shape"><use fill="black" fill-opacity="1" filter="url(#filter-2)" xlink:href="#path-1"><g fill-rule="nonzero" id="Shape">*****************************************<use fill="#FFFFFF" fill-rule="evenodd" xlink:href="#path-1"></use>(***************************************** (********************************************<span on="tap:gallery-lightbox-7494176" role="button" tabindex="">**********************************</p> <h3>    </p> <div>                                                                                                                         </div> </h3> <p>While administration officials have told impeachment investigators the president had ordered the OMB to withhold aid to Ukraine as early as 13 July, the newly released documents show White House officials ordering the Pentagon to pause the funds shortly after Mr Zelensky declined to acquiesce to Mr Trump’s request for “a favor” during the 25 July call.</p> <p>                                                                                                                                                                                                             </p> <p>“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,” Mr Duffey, associate director for national security programs wrote.</p> <p>                                                                                                                                                                                                     </p> <p>Mr Duffey, a political appointee who was previously head of Wisconsin’s Republican Party, had taken over management of the Ukraine aid portfolio from his deputy Mark Sandy, a career civil servant.</p> <p>                                                                                                                                                                                                                         </p> <p>The email, which was one of many released in a (****************************************************************************************************************** December document dumpin response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by the Center for Public Integrity, shows that Mr Duffey was aware the decision to place a hold on funds intended to help Ukraine fight off a Russian-backed invasion would be controversial, as he asked Pentagon comptroller Elaine McCusker keep the information “closely held to those who need to know to execute direction.”</p><div class="adace-slot-wrapper adace-middle-content adace-align-center adace-slot-wrapper-main" style="text-align:center;"> <div class="adace-disclaimer"> </div> <div class="adace-slot"> <div class="adace_ad_6605fd60cab65 adace-dont-remove"> </a> </div> </div> </div> <p>                                                                                                                                                                                                     </p> <p>While most of the emails released are heavily redacted, the information that remains also shows how the 30 July directive from Mr Duffey was not the first time he had contacted Ms McCusker about the congressionally approved military aid package to Ukraine.</p> <p>                                                                                                                                                                                                                   <a data-vars-event-id="c6" data-vars-item-name="BL-9256666-https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6590667-CPI-v-DoD-Dec-20-2019-Release.html" href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6590667-CPI-v-DoD-Dec-20-2019-Release.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">  </p> <div id="newsletter-component">    </p> <p>Only the best news in (your inbox) ********************************************</p> <p>  <span>  </span></div> <p>                                                                                  </p> <p>On June, Mr Duffey emailed the comptroller to enquire about a story in the Washington Examiner</p> <header>detailing how congress had approved $ (m) £ (m) for defense assistance to Kiev.</header> </p> <p>                                                                                                                                                                                                     </p> <p>“The president has asked about this funding release, and I have been tasked to follow-up with someone over there to get more detail,” he wrote, asking Ms McCusker if she had “any insight on this funding”.</p> <p>                                                                                                                                                                                                     </p> <p>During his 24 July call with Mr Zelensky, Mr Trump responded to his Ukrainian counterpart’s request to purchase more of the Javelin anti-tank missiles the US had been supplying to combat Russian-built tanks with an unusual request: “I would like you to do us a favor though because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it.”</p> <p>                                                                                                                                                                                                                  </p> <p>Mr Trump then asked Mr Zelensky to “get to the bottom” of a conspiracy theory which posits that Ukraine – not Russia – was responsible for breaking into Democratic National Committee (DNC) email servers during the election, and to investigate baseless charges that former vice president Mr Biden ordered Mr Zelensky’s predecessor to fire a top prosecutor to protect his son, Hunter Biden.</p> <p>                                                                                                                                                                                                                          <span on="tap:gallery-lightbox-7494176" role="button" tabindex="">************************************ (**************************************************</span></a></p> <p>                    Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events              </p> <p>No credible evidence supports the claim that Mr Biden’s directive to ex-Ukrainian president Petro Poroskenkowas rooted in any personal motive, as the ouster of ex-prosecutor general Viktor Shokinwas a condition for loan guarantees set by the government of the United States, and was supported by the government of the United Kingdom, the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and numerous other EU governments.</p> <p>                                                                                                                     </p> <p>A series of investigations, including one undertaken by special counsel Robert Mueller, found that the DNC cyberattack was executed by Russian hackers as part of a “sweeping and systematic” effort to swing the election to Mr Trump by damaging his opponent Hillary Clinton.</p> <p>                                                                                                                     </p> <p>Additionally, the idea that Ukraine interfered in the election has been rejected by multiple Trump administration officials, including Mr Trump’s own former top Russia advisor Dr Fiona Hill, who called the theory “a fictional narrative that has been perpetrated and propagated by the Russian security services themselves”.</p> <div class="adace-slot-wrapper adace-before-last-paragraph adace-slot-wrapper-main" > <div class="adace-disclaimer"> </div> <div class="adace-slot"> <div class="adace-loader adace-loader-6605fd60cb6a2"> <script> (function ($) { var $self = $('.adace-loader-6605fd60cb6a2'); var $wrapper = $self.closest('.adace-slot-wrapper'); "use strict"; var adace_load_6605fd60cb6a2 = function(){ var viewport = $(window).width(); var tabletStart = 601; var landscapeStart = 801; var tabletEnd = 961; var content = 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