Trump said Democrats had 'deep hatred' for the American voter as he lashed out over his impeachment.
The Trump administration froze aid to Ukraine just 91 minutes after the president got off the phone with Ukraine's leader and asked for investigations into Joe Biden and the 2016 election, according to newly released emails.
"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," Mike Duffey, the White House official in the Office of Management and Budget responsible for overseeing national security money and a Trump political appointee, wrote to OMB and Pentagon officials on July 25.
President Donald Trump meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy at the InterContinental Barclay New York. Photo / AP
The email suggests Duffey knew that the request to freeze US$391 million in assistance to Ukraine could be illegal since those funds were already approved by Congress and signed into law by President Trump.
"Given the sensitive nature of the request, I appreciate your keeping that information closely held to those who need to know to execute direction," Duffey said.
Duffey is one of four witnesses that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer wants to see testify in Trump's impeachment trial before the Senate.
Duffey's email was one of scores of internal correspondences and communications obtained by the Centre for Public Integrity, which sued the Trump administration under the Freedom of Information Act.
A judge ordered OMB and the Pentagon to hand over the emails to CPI on Friday.
Most of the emails were redacted, but the documents do show that Duffey and other Trump administration officials responsible for carrying out the president's orders may have been aware that what they were asked to do was illegal.
In September of last year and February of this year, Trump signed into law two spending bills that included a total of US$391 million in military assistance to Ukraine.
'Please hold off on any additional DoD obligations of these funds, pending direction from that process.'
But in June of this year, Trump reportedly noticed a news item in the Washington Examiner which reported that the Pentagon was planning to send $250 million in military equipment to Ukraine.
Ukraine was in desperate need of help from Washington because of a Russian-backed insurrection in the Donbas region in the eastern part of the country.
On the same day that the president saw the article, Duffey asked the Pentagon's chief financial officer, Elaine McCusker, about the aid to Ukraine.
"The President has asked about this funding release, and I have been tasked to follow-up with someone over there to get more detail," Duffey wrote in an email to McCusker, whose official title was comptroller for the Department of Defense.
Trump then held up the funds. As the freeze dragged on, officials in his administration began worrying that they may be breaking the law by defying an act of Congress.
By law, the administration was required to spend funds appropriated by Congress. Any delay on the spending or withholding of the funds needed to be done with Congressional approval - something which the White House did not seek.
