Pentagon raised Ukraine aid hold

A series of emails signal the order to maintain a freeze on military aid to Ukraine came directly from Donald Trump.

‘Partisan witch hunt’: Donald Trump. Picture: AFP

With congress reconvening at the weekend, House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi has so far refused to transmit the two articles of impeachment against Mr Trump — abuse of power and obstruction of congress — to the Senate until the chamber agrees on trial param­eters that she considers fair. No progress was made over the holiday break as to the rules of the trial, after Mr Trump last month became only the third US president to be impeached.

Senate Democrats want to hear from witnesses who refused to testify during the house investigation, and obtain documents denied to the impeachment probe. Republicans have balked, with Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell admitting last month he was working in “total co-ordination” with the White House on how to conduct the trial.

Mr Trump is accused of leveraging a White House meeting and $US391m in military aid to Ukraine, which Kiev needed to deter Russian aggression, in exchange for investigations into Democrats including his possible 2020 election rival Joe Biden.

The White House has rejected that narrative. But on the eve of the Senate re-convening, unredacted emails published by a national sec­urity site show a White House official told the Pentagon that the order to hold the Ukraine aid came from the President himself.

According to Just Security, an August 30 email sent by Michael Duffey, associate director of nat­ional security programs at the ­Office of Management and Budget, to the Pentagon’s comptroller said the aid freeze would continue at Mr Trump’s direction, despite mounting legal worry within the Defence Department.

“Clear direction from POTUS to continue to hold,” Mr Duffey wrote in the email.

The unredacted message was one of several not turned over to house investigators conducting the impeachment inquiry, Just Security reported.

On Friday, top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said Mr Duffey’s email “further implicates” Mr Trump and compromises Senator McConnell’s push to have a trial without documents and witnesses as sought by Democrats. He said it was imperative that Mr Duffey and other key figures testify, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney.

Ms Pelosi weighed in. “Trump engaged in unprecedented, total obstruction of congress, hiding these emails, all other documents, and his top aides from the American people,” she tweeted. “Why won’t Trump & McConnell allow a fair trial?” Mr Trump repeated his claim that the impeachment effort was a “partisan witch hunt”.

AFP