How was Trump’s order to freeze the $400 million in military assistance handled at the highest levels of his administration? The remains a key part of Democrats' impeachment inquiry.
House Democrats are building a case that President Donald Trump attempted to extort a foreign leader, withholding desperately needed military assistance to Ukraine unless the country’s president announced investigations into Trump’s political rivals.
“The overwhelming weight of evidence we have received tells us the president ordered that aid to be held up,” Raskin added. “However, the president has succeeded in obstructing the witnesses who would tell us the exact mechanics.” But so far, the mystery remains — and it comes as Democrats begin public impeachment hearings next week.
Instead, lawmakers have been told a tale of mass confusion and frustration across nearly every facet of government from a raft of senior State Department and Pentagon officials. Some witnesses said they had presumed or heard there was a quid pro quo involving military aid, but could not verify that that was the case.
But what Democrats have learned is that officials at the highest levels of the White House’s national security apparatus and the State Department were completely baffled. They all wanted the aid released to Ukraine, but they could not get an explanation for why it was blocked. Kent told investigators that OMB, on a July 18 video call, informed the State Department and other agencies that Mulvaney had ordered the hold at the direction of the president.
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