January 2, 2020: Unredacted Emails Reveal Trump' Was behind Illegal Effort to Stall Ukraine Aid

 

1/2/20: A trove of unredacted emails, which the Trump administration had been working hard to keep hidden, leaks to JustSecurity.org. 

As many Americans know, the free press has been doing its duty, digging up details of the Ukraine story since July. Meanwhile, Trump’s attacks on the free press have become increasingly strident. Fox News has continued to amplify and second the president, a precedent you might think they would be reluctant to enshrine, considering the next man in the Oval Office could be a nut from a Democratic tree.

Pentagon officials questioned the legality of the hold on aid. 

 

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On the Pentagon end, there was immediate doubt that the hold was legal.

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In recent weeks the free press revealed that 91 minutes after Trump hung up the phone and ended his “perfect” call with President Zelensky of Ukraine, Michael Duffey, a political appointee working in the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB),  contacted the Pentagon. Duffey informed officials that the hold on military aid would continue. 

The unredacted emails prove that on the Pentagon end, there was immediate doubt that the hold was legal. The Impoundment Control Act of 1974 requires that money appropriated by Congress be spent as intended, unless the executive branch provides notification and explains why funds should not be so spent.

 

The free press had already reported that Duffey was worried enough about the legality of such a move to ask the folks at the Pentagon to keep it quiet. (See: 12/23/19.) Now we know what Elaine McCusker, recipient of his emails, thought about such maneuvering. McCusker asked Duffey if he had gone through the Defense Department’s general counsel with his request. 

And here, as it always does where Team Trump is involved, the plot curdles. When reporters initially requested these emails, as they may under the Freedom of Information Act (passed in 1967 and intended to increase government transparency), the White House would not give them up. 

A court battle ensued. Judges sided with the free press. So far, so good. 

When reporters finally got a peak at the documents, they found they had been heavily redacted. For some strange reason, McCusker’s first response, her question regarding the legality of the hold, was blotted out in the copy of the email that the administration coughed up.

 

Now that the unredacted emails have leaked, we know that on July 26, the day after Trump’s “perfect call,” a Pentagon team of Ukraine experts agreed unanimously that the military aid be released. A readout of their discussion was sent to Defense Secretary Mark Esper. Included was this admission: “OMB noted that the President’s direction via the Chief of Staff in early July was to suspend security assistance to Ukraine…” More than $350 million in military and other aid was on delay. 

Thanks again to the free press, we had previously learned that Mr. Duffey managed to delay the aid by simply inserting footnotes in lengthy Department of Defense (DOD) documents. He hoped no one would notice. 

His first footnote put a hold on aid till August 5.

 

McCusker, whose job at the Pentagon involved oversight of billions in spending, did notice. She started asking questions. On August 6, Duffey told her he was going to use the same ploy. Footnote #2 was coming. McCusker inquired: Who had he contacted to ensure that this move was legal? 

“Good catch,” he responded. Duffey asked her who he should contact; but there’s no record he contacted anyone. 

On August 9, McCusker notified Duffey and other White House officials that the Pentagon was running out of time to implement the aid package and spend the allocated funds before September 30, the end of Fiscal Year 2020. Should they fail, they would be breaking the law.

When the White House released the emails, this warning was redacted for some unfathomable reason.

 

As time ticked away, nervousness at the Pentagon increased. McCusker warned the White House again on August 12. With each passing day, she said, it was harder to guarantee that defense contractors could meet obligations in time for funds to be spent and for Ukrainian allies to get the military assistance. 

A third footnote extended the delay to August 26. McCusker emailed Duffey. “What is the status of the impoundment paperwork?” she wondered. Had the White House prepared notification for Congress? 

Duffey responded: “I am not tracking that. Is that something you are expecting from OMB?”  

McCusker was blunt: “Yes, it is now necessary – legal teams were discussing last week.” 

When the White House originally released the emails, McCusker’s responses were again blacked out. 

 

“Clear direction from POTUS to continue to hold.” 

Ms. McCusker was blunt in follow-up emails – also initially redacted. She insisted on knowing, had the OMB notified the Department of Defense, officially telling them to hold the aid? “If so, when, and what was the reason given [emphasis added throughout, unless otherwise noted]?” 

By August 30, military aid had been on hold since June 19, if not longer. The story was leaking. That afternoon Secretary of Defense Esper and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with the president. They were hoping to convince him to release the aid package. Trump refused. Duffey made it clear that day, in another email to the Pentagon, who was calling the shots. 

“Clear direction from POTUS to continue to hold,” he wrote.

 

With only a month until the end of the Fiscal Year, defense contractors, not to mention our Ukrainian allies, were asking more and more questions. On September 1, Esper’s chief of staff contacted McCusker. L3 Harris Technologies, one of the contractors affected, was waiting for payment before filling military orders. Esper’s aide wanted to know, “Why the delay?” 

McCusker said the Pentagon was in an untenable position, “made particularly difficult because OMB lawyers continue to consistently mischaracterize the process – and the information we have provided. They keep repeating that this pause will not impact DOD’s ability to execute on time.” 

That line was originally redacted, too.

 

On August 27, Pentagon officials sent a one-page memo outlining their legal concerns. When the emails were released, the White House redacted the entire memo, including this: 

These footnotes [inserted by Mr. Duffey] make the affected funding legally unavailable for obligation during the period of the directed pause. As a result, 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. 

 

Any further delays, the memo continued, “will trigger the ICA’s [Impoundment Control Act] requirement to transmit to Congress a special message proposing rescission or deferral of funding for the USAI.” 

Duffey was either a slow learner, or a man who disdained legality. He went with a fourth footnote. 

On August 28 reporters for Politico blew the lid off the story. Vital aid to Ukraine was being withheld.

 

At that point, Trump administration officials realized they might need to start building a rational for their actions. We now know from leaked documents that a number of talking points (TP’s) were hashed out and circulated. The final talking point read, “No action has been taken by OMB that would preclude the obligation of these funds before the end of the fiscal year.” 

 

“McCusker says, ‘Hi.’” 

McCusker  wrote back to Duffey. “I don’t agree to the revised TPs – the last one is just not accurate from a financial execution standpoint, something we have been consistently conveying for a few weeks.”  

More redactions!!! If Team Trump could have had its way, the entire record would have read: “McCusker says, ‘Hi.’” 

Once it became clear that Esper and Pompeo had failed to move the president in their August 30 meeting, McCusker sent fresh warning. That included another email to Duffey on September 7. Where was the paperwork on impoundment, she inquired? Two days later, she told Duffey that delays made it unlikely that DOD could spend $120 million of the funding. 

Duffey seemed to realize he might be breaking the law. He might get caught. He added White House lawyers to the email chain and replied to McCusker: 

As you know, the President wanted a policy process run to determine the best use of these funds, and he specifically mentioned this to the SecDef the previous week. OMB developed a footnote authorizing DoD to proceed with all processes necessary to obligate funds. If you have not taken these steps, that is contrary to OMB’s direction and was your decision not to proceed. If you are unable to obligate the funds, it will have been DoD’s decision that cause any impoundment of funds.

 

“You can’t be serious,” McCusker shot back in response. “I am speechless.” 

And let’s redact that, too!

 

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NOW THAT the unredacted emails have been released, we can see why. We also see why President Trump has insisted that people like Duffey and McCusker can never testify in any impeachment hearings. 

Finally, on September 11, Duffey informed McCusker that the hold had ended. She asked why. Duffey responded, “Not exactly clear but president made the decision to go. Will fill you in when I get details.” 

(Again: no record he ever got back to her on the matter.) 

The Pentagon kicked it into overdrive and almost all funds were released, save for $35.2 million, which lapsed. 

 

POSTSCRIPT: With all the focus on the president’s sleazy behavior during the Ukraine affair, it would be easy to overlook stories about his sleazy interactions with women. Once again, we have an individual willing to speak out. 

According to Courtney Friel, who was working for Fox News at the time of this alleged incident, Citizen Trump once made her an offer he thought she couldn’t refuse. She doesn’t specify when this was – around 2012 or 2013. She does note that both she and the president were married. As she relates the story, Donald called her at work. She had mentioned an interest in working as a judge on his Miss USA beauty pageant. He told her she was “the hottest one at Fox News.” 

“Though he said I couldn’t be a judge since I worked at a different network, he did ask me about my career goals and complimented my work at FNC,” Friel, 39, wrote in a sneak peek of her book shared with the Daily News.

 

“Then, out of nowhere, he said: ‘You should come up to my office sometime, so we can kiss,’” Friel claimed.

 

“‘Donald,’ I responded, ‘I believe we’re both married.’ I quickly ended the call,” she wrote.

 

“This proposition made it difficult for me to report with a straight face on Trump running for president. It infuriated me that he would call all the women who shared stories of his bold advances liars. I totally believe them,” she states in the book.

 

“At least now I can joke that I could have banged the President — but I passed,” she wrote.

 

Good choice, Ms. Friel!