The Pentgon’s Acting Inspector General has responded to a request from six top Democratic Senators requesting he investigate President Donald Trump’s withholding of hundreds of millions of dollars in vital military aid to Ukraine. The response: No.
Principal Deputy Inspector General Glenn Fine, the Dept.of Defense’s Acting IG, in a letter to top Senate Democrats says he has “concerns,” which he shared with them in a meeting, “about opening an investigation now into matters that could lead to the DoD OIG potentially interfering with, duplicating, or otherwise impacting the ongoing House investigation.”
“It is clear there would be overlap in key witnesses and similar documents,” Fine added, as The Hill notes.
He also notes that there have been previous overlapping investigations but not ones that were requested by Congress when the House or Senate is already conducting their own investigation.
It is clear President Donald Trump used $391 million in congressionally-approved military aid to extort Ukraine in an attempt to have that embattled nation manufacture false evidence against the president’s top political opponent. Those actions are the target of a surrent impeachment investigation.
Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) published Fine’s letter and said, with his five fellow Senators: “We are disappointed that the Defense Department Office of the Inspector General has declined to investigate the Defense Department’s delay of the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative funding appropriated by Congress.”
Fine has been the Acting IG since one week before President Donald Trump took office, and previously served as the Dept. of Justice’s Inspector General from 2000 – 2011. In that role he investigated President George W. Bush’s politically motivated firings of U.S. Attorneys.