White House budget office defends withholding Ukraine aid

The White House.
(Image credit: Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

In a new legal memo, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) says it often puts temporary holds on money already signed into law, and did nothing wrong when it withheld security aid to Ukraine, The Washington Post reports.

President Trump first questioned the Ukraine military spending June 19, reportedly after reading about it in The Washington Examiner, and the aid was delayed eight times over the summer before he finally released it on Sept. 11. Trump's dealings with Ukraine and the delay in getting aid to the country have been central in the House impeachment case against him. "Importantly," the Post says, "the agency's memo does not attempt to rebut Democrats' contention that Trump abused his power by seeking to pressure a foreign nation to open an investigation into a political rival or that he obstructed justice in deterring the investigation into his conduct."

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.