Latest in The Ukraine Connection
The report doesn't break any new ground and highlights the decline of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
Ukrainians want action to demonstrate the Trump administration's commitment to the country.
The controversial member of the president’s impeachment defense team argues that the withholding of military aid to Ukraine did not violate the Impoundment Control Act.
The House Judiciary Committee has released additional material from Lev Parnas related to the ongoing impeachment inquiry, available below.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a decision on Thursday concluding that the Trump administration violated the Impoundment Control Act (ICA), a law that regulates how the White House may distribute money appropriated by Congress. The decision found that the White House Office of Management and Budget withheld security aid to Ukraine in summer 2019 “for a policy reason,” not permitted under the law.
A judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed a suit from former Deputy National Security Advisor Charles Kupperman seeking guidance on whether to comply with a congressional subpoena for his testimony in the impeachment inquiry. The judge held that intervening events, including the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence's withdrawal of its subpoena to Kupperman, have rendered the suit moot. The opinion can be found here and below.
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer sent a letter to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Dec. 15 requesting several procedural rules for the Senate impeachment trial of President Trump. Schumer calls for subpoenas to be issued to Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, former National Security Adviser John Bolton, senior adviser to the acting White House Chief of Staff Robert Blair and Office of Management and Budget official Michael Duffey for the purposes of testifying in a Senate impeachment trial.
The Office of Management and Budget has released a memo defending the legality of its decision to withhold military aid to Ukraine–about which questions have been raised in connection with the impeachment inquiry. The memo is available here and below.
The House Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing starting at 9 a.m. on Dec. 12 to mark up H. Res. 755, the draft articles of impeachment against President Donald J. Trump. The hearing can be viewed below.
The concerns of a member of Congress focused on political messaging aren’t the concerns of a prosecutor. And when a single document tries to speak to both sets of goals at the same time, compromises will have to be made.