Newly uncovered emails have revealed that Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and budget officials scrambled to reverse-engineer an explanation for the hold on military aid to Ukraine, the Washington Post reported, citing three people familiar with records of a White House review.
According to the report, White House attorneys expressed concern over unflattering exchanges discovered in the records, and some officials fear the publication of the emails could create a political firestorm.
In early August, Mulvaney asked acting Office of Management and Budget director Russell Vought how much longer the aid could be legally delayed as well as the OMB’s progress on developing a legal rationale for the hold.
Trump had made the decision in July, without consulting anyone on its legality, to hold military aid to Ukraine. Then, in early August, Mulvaney asked acting Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought how much longer the aid could be legally delayed as well as the OMB’s progress on developing a legal rationale for the hold.
Vought and other OMB staffers argued for the hold’s legality in the emails with State Department and National Security Officials pushing back, according to the Post, with OMB attorneys arguing it was legally justifiable as long as it was considered a “temporary” hold.
According to the Post, the documents review includes email conversations between OMB and State officials discussing potential legal issues with the $400 million in military aid the White House was holding up.
Mark Sandy, the only OMB official to testify in the House’s impeachment inquiry thus far, said that the aid delay was highly unusual and that he had never known a political official to assume control of an aid package in such a way, according to the Post.
