December 21, 2019

Budget Official Ordered a Hold on Aid to Ukraine Just After the Trump-Zelensky Call

Michael Duffy is one of four officials whose Senate testimony Democrats seek.

President Donald Trump talks to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) in the East Room of the White House on November 6, 2019. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

An Office of Management and Budget official named Michael Duffy likely has vital knowledge about why the White House ordered a hold on military aid to Ukraine, an issue at the center of President Trump’s impeachment. But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)  is blocking Duffy and other witnesses from testifying in Trump’s impeachment trial

Just over an hour after President Donald Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Duffy told the Pentagon to hold off on dispensing military aid Congress had approved for Ukraine.

“Based on guidance I have received and in light of the Administration’s plan to review assistance to Ukraine, including the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, please hold off on any additional DoD obligations of these funds, pending direction from that process,” Duffy, OMB’s Associate Director for National Security Programs, wrote in an email to three senior defense department officials. Duffy added: “Given the sensitive nature of the request, I appreciate your keeping that information closely held to those who need to know to execute direction.” 

The email was published early Saturday morning by the Center for Public Integrity, which won a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. The Defense Department provided the information to the nonprofit under a court order.

The email bolsters previous disclosures that the White House blocked the release of $391 million in aid that Congress had already appropriated for Ukraine on the same day as the Trump-Zelensky phone call, and that the decision to hold the aid was connected to the call. Duffy’s email, sent at 11:04am, only two hours after Trump’s call with Zelensky, which the White House has said occurred between 9:03 and 9:33 that morning. During the conversation, Zelensky mentioned seeking US military assistance; he wanted to buy anti-tank weapons. In response, Trump said, “I would like you to do us a favor though,” and asked Zelensky to investigate Vice President Joe Biden and a conspiracy theory that a Democratic National Committee server is in Ukrainian hands.

Duffy may know if Trump, or another top aide, such as acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, ordered the hold on Ukraine’s aid.

Duffy is one of four witnesses the Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) wants to testify in the Senate impeachment trial expected to occur next month. Others are: Mulvaney, former National Security Adviser John Bolton, Senior Adviser to the acting White House chief of staff Robert Blair, and a senior Mulvaney adviser. All four officials refused to agree to depositions by House impeachment investigators.

McConnell has refused Schumer’s demand for witnesses, leaving the leaders at an impasse. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is refusing to send the Senate two articles of impeachment the House passed on Wednesday until McConnell makes clear he will hold fair trial.

The disclosure of Duffy’s July 25 email, since it shows he has significant information, seem to make McConnell’s position more difficult.  

WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

Because the in-depth journalism on underreported beats and unique perspectives on the daily news you turn to Mother Jones for is only possible because readers fund us. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism we exist to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we need readers to show up for us big time—again.

Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

If you can right now, please support the journalism you get from Mother Jones with a donation at whatever amount works for you. And please do it now, before you move on to whatever you're about to do next and think maybe you'll get to it later, because every gift matters and we really need to see a strong response if we're going to raise the $253,000 we need in less than three weeks.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

Because the in-depth journalism on underreported beats and unique perspectives on the daily news you turn to Mother Jones for is only possible because readers fund us. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism we exist to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we need readers to show up for us big time—again.

Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

If you can right now, please support the journalism you get from Mother Jones with a donation at whatever amount works for you. And please do it now, before you move on to whatever you're about to do next and think maybe you'll get to it later, because every gift matters and we really need to see a strong response if we're going to raise the $253,000 we need in less than three weeks.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate