Breaking — some more to add to the timeline. The Office of Management and Budget’s first official action to withhold $250M in aid to Ukraine came on the evening of July 25—the day of the now-infamous call between Trump and Ukrainian president Zelensky.
The Office of Management and Budget’s first official action to withhold $250 million in Pentagon aid to Ukraine came on the evening of July 25, the same day President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke on the phone, according to a House Budget Committee summary of the office’s documents.
That withholding letter, which was among documents provided to the committee, was signed by a career OMB official, the summary states. But the next month, OMB political appointee Michael Duffey signed letters taking over the decision to withhold both the Pentagon and State Department aid to Ukraine from the career official.
A hold was placed on the Ukraine aid at the beginning of July, and the agencies were notified at a July 18 meeting that it had been frozen at the direction of the White House, a week before the Trump-Zelensky call.The career official who initially withheld the aid money was Mark Sandy, according to a source familiar with the matter.
And this…
BREAKING: House Judiciary Committee schedules first impeachment hearing for Dec. 4; witnesses will be legal experts – Reuters
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) November 26, 2019
Chairman Nadler has sent a letter to Trump today, reminding him of his and his counsel's right to attend the impeachment hearing. pic.twitter.com/h46Ck25BRH
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) November 26, 2019
Nadler: “At base, the President has a choice to make: he can take this opportunity to be represented in the impeachment hearings, or he can stop complaining about the process. I hope that he chooses to participate in the inquiry … as other Presidents have done before him.”