Tunggu waktu: Report: Ukraine Is Still Waiting on Millions in Trump-Suspended Aid

Friday, December 13, 2019

Report: Ukraine Is Still Waiting on Millions in Trump-Suspended Aid - Vanity Fair

Since Democrats launched their impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump, the president’s allies have insisted that he didn’t actually extort Ukraine because the nearly $400 million in military aid that was held up in exchange for investigations was ultimately released. One issue there is that the aid was only released the day after Representative Adam Schiff sent a letter concerning the existence of the whistle-blower complaint, suggesting it might’ve remained suspended if no one had said anything. Another problem is that internal emails show the White House scrambling to come up with an after-the-fact justification for the hold just days after the White House Counsel’s Office was informed that an anonymous CIA official had filed a complaint regarding the president’s July 25 call with Volodymyr Zelensky, suggesting people on the inside knew they were screwed. Oh, and one other thing: Ukraine hasn’t actually received all the aid yet.

The Los Angeles Times reports that more than $20 million of Pentagon aid has yet to reach Ukraine, which is currently fighting a war with Russia. Oops!

Letters from lawmakers to Defense Secretary Mark Esper and other officials seeking answers on the continued delay to disbursing the aid to Ukraine have gone unanswered, according to the Senate aides. A federal judge separately ruled late last month that the Defense Department and OMB must provide documentation regarding the aid holdup by Thursday in response to public records requests. “We still don’t have a clear understanding of why this is taking so long,” one Senate aide said.

Pentagon spokesperson Lt. Col. Carla M. Gleason told the outlet that the remaining $20.2 million “will be implemented as quickly as possible in accordance with contracting procedures and applicable law,” adding that the delay is due to certain legal requirements. “Specifically, we needed to reach out to prospective vendors to obtain updated pricing data,” she said. “Delays in obtaining this information is impacting our overall time lines.” Senate staffers, however, told the Times that the law contains no such stipulations.

The fact that the suspended aid hasn’t actually reached Ukraine in its entirety is apparently of little import to Republicans, who spent Thursday insisting there is zero reason Trump should be impeached, despite the whole abuse of power thing. “They got the money on September 11,” Rep. Jim Jordan shouted in his typical wrestling-coach octave. “That’s what happened. You can make up all the things you want, but those are not the facts.” On Wednesday, the Office of Management and Budget—where someone has been in very close contact with Rudy Giuliani, including around the time the department was scrambling to come up with a justification for the hold—released a new memo claiming it did not violate any laws because the aid was released after a temporary pause “to study whether the spending complied with U.S. policy.” The memo did not make mention of the still-frozen $20.2 million, or of the OMB officials who have resigned in part over concerns that such a justification is actually, to use the correct legal jargon, total bullshit.

Tunggu waktu

Pages

Friday, December 13, 2019

Report: Ukraine Is Still Waiting on Millions in Trump-Suspended Aid - Vanity Fair

No comments:

Post a Comment

Arsip Blog

Mengenai Saya