https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/02/politics/bill-taylor-leaves-post-kiev/index.html Bill Taylor departs post as top US diplomat in Ukraine https://www.justsecurity.org/67863/...ts-reveal-extent-of-pentagons-legal-concerns/ Exclusive: Unredacted Ukraine Documents Reveal Extent of Pentagon’s Legal Concerns “Clear direction from POTUS to continue to hold.” This is what Michael Duffey, associate director of national security programs at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), told Elaine McCusker, the acting Pentagon comptroller, in an Aug. 30 email, which has only been made available in redacted form until now. It is one of many documents the Trump administration is trying to keep from the public, despite congressional oversight efforts and court orders in Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) litigation. “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. I understand that DOD will continue its planning and casework during this period and that this brief pause in obligations will not preclude DOD’s timely execution of the final policy direction. We intend to formalize the pause with an apportionment footnote to be provided later today. 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. Please let me know if you have any questions.” 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. Duffey, adding OMB and Pentagon lawyers to the recipients list, and in a formal and lengthy letter that was quite different from the way he’d addressed McCusker all summer, chastised her and the Defense Department for dropping the ball, saying that if and when the hold is lifted, and DOD finds itself unable to obligate the funding, it would be DOD’s fault. “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.” Essentially: You guys screwed up. Not us. McCusker responded: “You can’t be serious. I am speechless.”
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/01/un...LU93QjduJ7aeEA7GUHY0YaElNo8wBqrRrfMUqpQHNE9fo Unredacted emails reveal the Pentagon feared Trump was breaking the law with Ukraine aid hold President Donald Trump’s decision to withhold military aid from Ukraine has been a key point of contention in House impeachment hearings, as Trump-defending Republicans have argued that the hold on the aid just coincidentally came during a time when the president was pressing the Ukrainian government to investigate his prospective 2020 political opponent. However, Just Security has now examined unredacted emails that show officials within the Pentagon viewed Trump’s Ukraine aid hold with increasing alarm and were concerned that the president was breaking the law. The emails show that key legal concerns about the Ukraine funding were regularly raised by Elaine McCusker, the acting Pentagon comptroller, who argued that the White House would be breaching the Impoundment Control Act if it did not send Congress a notification that it was withholding the aid. One of the key emails came on August 26th last year, when McCusker asked Michael Duffey, associate director of national security programs at the Office of Management and Budget, for a status update on paperwork that needed to be filed to keep the administration’s hold legal. “What is the status of the impoundment paperwork?” McCusker asked him. “I am not tracking that. Is that something you are expecting from OMB?” Duffey replied. “Yes, it is now necessary — legal teams were discussing last week,” she replied. In an email sent the next day, McCusker accused OMB legal officials of being willfully blind to the legal concerns she was raising about the hold. “This situation is… made particularly difficult because OMB lawyers continue to consistently mischaracterize the process — and the information we have provided,” she wrote. “They keep repeating that this pause will not impact DOD’s ability to execute on time.” In reality, argued the DOD in a previously undisclosed letter, the pause was definitely hurting the Pentagon’s ability to distribute aid in a timely manner. “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 Pentagon wrote.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...nts-sought-in-trump-impeachment-idUSKBN1YZ05K Giuliani associate asks court to allow handing over documents sought in Trump impeachment WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Lev Parnas, an indicted associate of U.S. President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, has asked a court for permission to turn over the contents of Parnas’ phone and other documents to a House of Representatives panel for use in the Trump impeachment inquiry, his lawyer said on Monday. FILE PHOTO: Ukrainian-American businessman Lev Parnas, an associate of President Donald Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, exits after a bail hearing at the Manhattan Federal Court in New York, U.S., December 17, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo Lawyer Joseph Bondy said in a tweet that the Justice Department on Tuesday would be producing the documents and the contents of the phone seized from Parnas when he was arrested in October. The government “does not object” to Parnas handing over the documents to the House Intelligence Committee, subject to approval by the court, Bondy wrote in a letter to U.S. District Judge Paul Oetken in New York. Parnas, a Ukraine-born U.S. citizen, was charged alongside another Florida businessman, Belarus-born Igor Fruman, with illegally funneling money to a pro-Trump election committee and other politicians. Both have pleaded not guilty. Giuliani has said Parnas and Fruman assisted him in investigating one of the Republican president’s political rivals, former Democratic Vice President Joe Biden, and Biden’s son Hunter, who served on the board of a Ukrainian energy company. Trump was impeached by the Democratic-led House on Dec. 18 on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The House intelligence panel played a leading role in the investigation, which focused on Trump’s effort to push Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to open investigations into Biden, a leading contender to run against Trump in the 2020 election, and a debunked theory on election interference. In the letter to Oetken, Bondy said review of the material, which the House panel had subpoenaed, was essential for its “ability to corroborate the strength” of Parnas’ potential testimony. Bondy said he and Parnas did not know “whether we intend to produce the entirety of the materials, or a subset filtered for either privilege or relevancy.” Bondy said in early November that Parnas was prepared to comply with requests for records and testimony from congressional impeachment investigators.
Y'all can't make this shiite up. I am watching CNN and they have a contributor on giving opinions on whether Trump should be impeached and if there is a basis for it. That contributor is Andrew McCabe. Have they no shame? No, of course they don't. FAKE NEWS.