Quote:
Originally Posted by detbuch
It would be reasonable to recognize various scenarios. But they are still speculations. And yes, they gave explanations for releasing the money. There are various explanations given by others as well. There is even this neutral explanation by Byron York:
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/n...swer-is-simple
But the main crux is not the temporary hold, which was not illegal, but the notion that it was for political gain. That can only be speculation since only Trump could actually know that. And ultimately, it is all irrelevant. The aid was given. Zelensky said there was no pressure.
And, in any event, as Dershowitz pointed out, whether what Trump did was "right" or "wrong" it did not rise to the level of an impeachable offense. Impeachment should require a higher standard or else it creates the danger of creating the Executive branch a stepchild of Congress. |
Since Dershowitz is easier, I'll do him first.
Short and sweet is, The idea that only violations of criminal law are impeachable is logically, legally, morally, constitutionally, historically and factually absurd.
Common-law crimes are no harder to define with precision than crimes written down in a statute.
Ask any first-year law students for the common law’s definition of burglary and they’ll (hopefully) be able to tell you: “the breaking and entering of the dwelling house of another in the nighttime with the intent to commit a felony.” If someone is accused of burglary in a state where the crime isn’t defined by statute, no defense lawyer would respond by announcing that burglary is vague or made up.
President Trump’s defense falls apart for precisely the same reason. As with burglary, American legal treatises and judicial opinions have long recognized the criminal offense of “abuse of power,” sometimes called “misconduct in office.” In 1846, the first edition of the pre-eminent treatise on American criminal law defined this common-law offense as when “a public officer, entrusted with definite powers to be exercised for the benefit of the community, wickedly abuses or fraudulently exceeds them.” The treatise noted that such an officer “is punishable by indictment, though no injurious effects result to any individual from his misconduct.”
Once again, the argument that Dersh is making undercuts the defense. He is saying any kind of quid pro quo, even if there is a personal benefit is not impeachable, let alone a crime. Then what was there to investigate w Biden??? He has the same defense!
You cite "speculation" to prove your explanation of the money being withheld illegally, Byron York is not a witness of any type.
Laura Cooper is, along with others and plenty of documentary evidence exists.
On the same day in Washington, officials representing national security agencies in a meeting of the “Ukraine Deputies Small Group,” convened by the NSC express “unanimous support” for lifting the hold on security aid to Ukraine. Laura Cooper relays the Defense Department’s sense of urgency about the legal requirement to spend the money by Sept. 30. A readout sent by John Rood, head of policy at the Defense Department, to Defense Secretary Mark Esper and reported by Just Security’s Kate Brannen, makes clear that the hold occurred at the direction of President Trump:
OMB noted that the President’s direction via the Chief of Staff in early July was to suspend security assistance to Ukraine including by blocking the $115 [Foreign Military Financing] congressional notification and by halting execution of the $250M FY19 USAI programs.
Aug. 3, 2019 — OMB political appointee Michael Duffey signs a letter informing Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan and U.S. Agency for International Development Deputy Administrator Bonnie Glick of “a `reapportionment’ of over a dozen different funding categories, including Ukrainian military aid, and ordering an `accounting’ of the unobligated balances in each account,” according to the Washington Post. The letter served as a warning to the agencies that the administration planned to review and could potentially cancel” all $391 million of military aid to Ukraine.
“Without being provided explanation or justification about why the administration was delaying the aid, some career officials at the Office of Management and Budget became worried they didn’t have the legal authority to hold up the funds,” which had been appropriated by Congress, the Wall Street Journal reported. “While career civil servants put an initial hold on the aid,” Duffey “was given the authority for continuing to keep the aid on hold after the career staff began raising their concerns to political officials at OMB.”
Aug. 6, 2019 — Duffey emails acting Pentagon Comptroller Elaine McCusker that he plans to extend the hold. McCusker raises the question of whether the extension would affect the Defense Department’s ability to spent the money before Sept. 30, as legally required by Congress.
8/9
The same day, acting Pentagon Comptroller Elaine McCusker emails senior OMB officials, including Sandy and Duffey, to warn that it may not be possible to spend the money before the end of the fiscal year unless the hold is lifted by Aug. 12. That element was blacked out when the administration released that email in December 2019 in response to a FOIA request.
Aug. 17, 2019 — Sondland asks Volker in a text whether the U.S. side still wants Zelenskyy “to give us an unequivocal draft with 2016 and Boresma [cq]?” This may indicate Zelenskyy has balked. Volker responds, “That’s the clear message so far…I’m hoping we can put something out there that causes him to respond with that.”
Less than 10 days later, Politico publishes an exclusive with the headline, “Trump Holds Up Ukraine Military Aid Meant to Confront Russia.”
Aug. 21, 2019 — DoD’s McCusker emails her DOD colleagues that members of the House Appropriations Committee had been in Ukraine earlier that month and sent the Pentagon a request for information regarding the funding.
Aug. 22, 2019 — The Trump administration abandons its effort to slash foreign assistance programs, but the military assistance to Ukraine remains suspended until it is finally released on Sept. 11. If the funding hadn’t been released before the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30, it would have been canceled, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Aug. 26, 2019 – The Inspector General forwards the intelligence community whistleblower complaint to Acting DNI Maguire.
On the same day, Duffey emails McCusker that the funding hold is being extended again, Just Security‘s Kate Brannen reported. That prompts McCusker to ask, “What is the status of the impoundment paperwork?” She adds in the rest of the exchange, “It is now necessary — legal teams were discussing last week.” McCusker’s side of the exchange was redacted in emails the administration released in December 2019. McCusker later that day tells Duffey that the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) also had begun asking questions about the aid.
Aug. 27, 2019 — Defense Secretary Esper’s chief of staff, shares with McCusker an email he received the day before from L3 Harris Technology, a defense contractor that was slated to provide some of the allotted equipment to Ukraine, saying the company had heard of a hold on the aid and asking what was happening, according to reporting by Just Security‘s Kate Brannen. McCusker responds, “This situation is really unworkable made particularly difficult because OMB lawyers continue to consistently mischaracterize the process — and the information we have provided.”
McCusker also gives Duffey a heads-up that the Pentagon is preparing a letter from the deputy defense secretary to Russell Vought, the acting director of OMB, that says, “We have repeatedly advised OMB officials that pauses beyond Aug. 19, 2019 jeopardize the Department’s ability to obligate USAI funding prudently and fully, consistent with the Impoundment Control Act.” The letter goes on to say that, since the latest hold had expired and had not been extended, the Pentagon is proceeding with obligating the money and that any further delay would require “a special message [to Congress] proposing rescission or deferral of funding.”
But later that day, Duffey extends the hold again.
Aug. 28, 2019 – Then-U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton becomes the first high-level Trump administration official to visit Kyiv since President Zelenskyy’s inauguration. Bolton says the two discussed a possible meeting between the two presidents during a trip Trump planned at the time to Poland.
The same day, Politico breaks the news that President Trump was delaying the distribution of $250 million of fiscal 2019 security assistance that Ukraine needs to fight its war with Russia on its eastern flank, by asking his administration to review how it was being spent. The hold on the aid package at the same time as Trump and Giuliani were agitating publicly for Ukraine to investigate Biden raises the specter that the U.S. president was using congressionally appropriated taxpayer dollars as leverage to coerce a foreign government to investigate his potential rival in the 2020 election. It later emerges that a separate military aid package of $141.5 million in Foreign Military Financing also was included in the suspension, for a total of almost $400 million.
As the Trump administration prepares talking points for its response to the story, McCusker emails Duffey to say that she disagrees with the final point that says, “No action has been taken by OMB that would preclude the obligation of these funds before the end of the fiscal year.” The emails that the administration released in December 2019 in response to a FOIA request redacted McCusker’s note.
Aug. 30, 2019 — After Esper and Pompeo meet with President Trump, Duffey emails McCusker, “Clear direction from POTUS to hold.” He adds that he would send new paperwork extending the hold. But in the meantime, Esper tells Chewning that no decision emerged from the meeting.
Late August: The Acting Director of National Intelligence and Inspector General of the Intelligence Community make a written criminal referral to the Justice Department after the Inspector General conducts an inquiry into the whistleblower’s complaint, according to Acting DNI Maguire’s congressional testimony and the New York Times. (See Aug. 14 entry for verbal criminal referral.)
September 2019 – The Wall Street Journal reports on Sept. 24, “Ukrainian officials earlier this month expressed concern to U.S. senators that the aid had been held up as a penalty for resisting that pressure.”
Sept. 1, 2019 — Vice President Mike Pence, standing in for President Trump at a World War II commemoration in Warsaw, meets with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, who raises the question of the hold on military assistance. Sondland and Morrison also attended the meeting. Afterwards, Sondland has a brief side conversation with Zelenskyy aide Yermak and tells him that the aid likely would not be released until Ukraine publicly announced the investigations.
The same day, U.S. Senators Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, and Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican, visit Kyiv and meet with Zelenskyy, accompanied by Taylor. Zelenskyy’s “first question to the senators was about the withheld security assistance,” Taylor later tells the impeachment inquiry. “Both senators stressed that bipartisan support for Ukraine in Washington was Ukraine’ s most important strategic asset and that President Zelenskyy should not jeopardize that bipartisan support by getting drawn into U.S. domestic politics,” Taylor says.
The same day in Washington, the Trump administration again extends the hold on Ukraine assistance.
Sept. 9, 2019 – Three U.S. House committees launch probe into Trump and Giuliani pressure campaign
The House Foreign Affairs, Intelligence and Oversight and Reform committees announce a joint investigation of Trump and Giuliani’s alleged efforts to strongarm Ukraine into pursuing two investigations for the president’s political gain, including by threatening to withhold $250 million in security assistance. The joint press release says public records show the efforts have continued “for nearly two years” and were conducted “under the guise of anti-corruption activity.”
Sept. 9, 2019 — Duffey adds OMB and Pentagon lawyers to a response to McCusker that contradicts months of email exchanges, saying OMB had, in fact, “authoriz[ed] DoD to proceed with all processes necessary to obligate funds” for Ukraine security aid and laying all responsibility for any delay onto DoD. McCusker replies, “You can’t be serious. I am speechless.”
Sept. 11, 2019 – Trump releases the hold on U.S. security assistance to Ukraine