Posted on 01/16/2020 10:42:45 AM PST by blueyon
The White House violated the law by temporarily withholding U.S. military aid to Ukraine, said a Government Accountability Office report published on Thursday.
“In the summer of 2019, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) withheld from obligation funds appropriated to the Department of Defense (DOD) for security assistance to Ukraine,” the eight-page watchdog report read. “Faithful execution of the law does not permit the President to substitute his own policy priorities for those that Congress has enacted into law. OMB withheld funds for a policy reason, which is not permitted under the Impoundment Control Act (ICA). The withholding was not a programmatic delay. Therefore, we conclude that OMB violated the ICA,” it concluded.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
Administrative opinion versus judicial law.
Check the background. Law does NOT say they have to be dispersed immediately, says they have to be dispersed “by the end of the fiscal year. They were so this GAO announcements is pure partisan drivel without a shred of fact to it.
An Obama appointee made this decision. The OMB says they are wrong. Says delays in disbursements are normal in these situation. OMB is actually the people that manages disbursements
Just another example of the total political corruption of the Democrat Fascist party. Any judgement by a Democrat appointee of this sort in the last 3 years, Judicial or otherwise, has been overturned by higher authority as being merit-less
Where in the Congressional Budget is there a date set to disperse funds to the Ukraine?
Law is “end of the fiscal year” not “immediately”
with this logic withholding a portion of someone’s pay is breaking the law...
Very clever of you to use a common analogy to explain what is a very complex process used by the ruling elite to obscure their ill gotten gains.
Why doesn’t Breitbart do a story on the due date for transferring funds, and then call the GAO liars.
Seems there was an operating principle of “start spending ASAP, with delays never exceeding 45 days”. Doing so absolutely assures compliance with law, without legal wrangling about exactly where the line is.
Trump recognizes there is exact meaning of law, and leverages it. Those who know the rules are more likely to win; those who don’t, don’t. Bureaucrats got scared when he started pushing limits.
Takes time to spend hundreds of millions of dollars, so people understandably got nervous when delays were prolonged. Indeed, when this particular spending did commence, about half of it was un-spent when EOY arrived ... but Congress had already, as appropriate, extended the deadline which was properly met.
THERE IS NO LEGAL VIOLATION. The delays were unusual, and the explanations odd, but there was no violation of law.
Has Joe Biden been arrested yet?
You are correct. This is propaganda for their base to make it seem as if they have a case.
The aid was held up but so was other aid to other countries and the President’s lawyers knew there was a legal extension available. The aid was released.
This aid is part of loan guarantees and grants that have had grifter’s hands in it for decades. The entire global deep state has had their dirty hands in it. POTUS was right to question the integrity of those feeding on it and to dispatch lawyers to investigate it.
But sure enough WAPO, NY Times and the usual fake news actors will try to spin it as a high crime and misdemeanor.
Won’t work.
Not needed. They are doing it by lies & their their swamp people. Barr will just wait this out. Nothing happens to the Klintoons as we now have all of those lost Hillary E-Mails. Barr won't touch it. Has Barr or even Pompeo at State fired anyone? Rat Rod is still in office & all of the rest of these criminals. It's all a big Fustercluck & won't change. Sad sad sad.
The story that is latest breaking is always the top story.
The agency offered an opinion. It does not have the force of law and is based on a premise shown to be false numerous times. Reading the mind of President Trump is certainly not within their purview. Nothing illegal was done in regards to funds to Ukraine. Spin it all they like their opinion does not amount to a hill of beans in real life application.
I am so darned sick and tired of the Dems getting on television every few hours and repeating the same mantra over and over. I think they think this is how they will win over voters...just keep showing your sorry selves in front of a camera and repeat the same things over and over and over.
My ranting is over.
Is the GAO a court of law? Was there a trial of facts and a judge/jury adjudication?
No? Then no “violation of law”.
Not in the US anyway.
Bureaucrats do not determine what a violation of law is. They (the proper agency) can only alleged or charge or indict on some perceived violation of law.
What a farce!
Didn’t Congress give the President more time to work with Ukraine’s Pres. Zelensky to clean up their infamous corruption? Why wasn’t this mentioned in the report? Because it is BIASED !
Didn’t Congress give the President more time to work with Ukraine’s Pres. Zelensky to clean up their infamous corruption? Why wasn’t this mentioned in the report? Because it is BIASED !
They are claiming that because the Department of Defense certified on May 23, 2019 that the Ukrainian military had done some things to be certified they had taken care of corruption in the procurement area, then the Aid could have been started being transferred then on a schedule made by bureaucrats. However, every bureaucrat in the Executive Branch is merely an advisor to the President, it is the President’s imprimatur that goes on every executive decision and every execution of anything that is done in the Executive Branch. They ADVISE the President, they don’t DIRECT the President. Just because some flunky somewhere down in the bowels of the Executive Branch decide spending was OK, does NOT obligate the President to spend it, but that is what the GAO is getting its LEFTIST panties in a wad about. They claim that Congress meant it should have been spent ASAP when corruption was certified taken care of. . . But that was only corruption in one area of Ukraine. The Pentagon was myopic about just the military corruption. There was still the overall government corruption.
The DOD had taken 210 days to do that certification, and in the meantime Ukraine had elected a new president who claimed to be anti-corruption in April. But by July, he had done NOTHING to show that he was inclined to oust corrupt politicians from their sinecures. The same people were in the same offices. President Trump put a hold on the aid until he could see some evidence that actually met the statutory requirement. Apparently what Zelensky was waiting for was the parliamentary election in mid-July. When his party won an overwhelming majority, Zelensky went to work replacing corrupt officials. Conversely, when President Trump received word from VP Pence and Senator Johnson that Zelensky HAD made major changes, Trump released the funds.
How many thousands of innocent Americans have been railroaded by these deep state demons ?
-PJ
A) This is the GAO. They are not in a position to judge legality.
B) The aid was not withheld, it was disbursed within the proscribed time limits.
Fail.
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