There may be a direct link now from Donald Trump to the Ukrainian hold on U.S. aid. A website focusing on reporting and analysis of national security law and policy called Just Security reviewed an email dated August 30, 2019 – and it has legs.
According to CNN Thursday, the email was sent from Michael Duffey, associate director of national security programs at OMB to Elaine McCusker, the acting Pentagon comptroller. The email stated that the freeze on aid to Ukraine would continue at the explicit direction of the President despite growing legal concerns within the Pentagon and mounting external questions prompted by news of the hold becoming public just days prior.
“Clear direction from POTUS to continue to hold,” Duffey wrote in that email. And with that, a flood of new information threatens the presidency of the United States. The email was unavailable in redacted form until now and was not previously delivered to House investigators conducting the impeachment inquiry into the President, according to Just Security.
The August 30 email was sent on the same day Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with Trump to discuss the hold, which had already been in place for roughly two months.
According to Just Security, “Thanks to the testimony of several Trump administration officials, we now know what Trump was waiting on: a commitment from Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden…Last month, a court ordered the government to release almost 300 pages of emails to the Center for Public Integrity in response to a FOIA lawsuit. It released a first batch on Dec. 12, and then a second installment on Dec. 20, including Duffey’s email, but that document, along with several others, were partially or completely blacked out.”
Read more about the unredacted emails here.