This is whay The Koch Brothers, Trump and other GOP billionaires are idiots for not buying up as many TV networks as they can
An earlier edition of the New York Times cited DOD spokesperson as saying that Pentagon and DOD attys had conferred with the Dept. of Justice lawyers as well as White House Legal Advisors before withholding the payments.
[ Note: The current version @NYT has the same title but has been dramatically edited since the resulting fire storm swept the country. I stand by my earlier post citing the NYT article. Sadly I neglected to post the url or include a cut and paste direct quote. After all my years here, I should have known better. ]