President Volodymyr Zelensky went into the July 25 call — now the subject of a Beltway firestorm for Trump’s request that Ukraine launch a probe into the son of political rival Joe Biden — still expecting $250 million from the Pentagon and another $141 million from the State Department to fund Ukraine’s conflict with Russia, according to BuzzFeed News.
In fact, Trump ordered the aid suspended during a meeting before the call ever took place, according to The Washington Post.
Only no one told Ukrainian officials, who instead learned the funds had stopped flowing in a letter from their Washington embassy in late August, according to BuzzFeed, which cited both Ukrainian and US officials.
“We were worried, because actually, we didn’t find any plausible reason” for the delay, Oleksiy Semeniy, an aide to Ukraine’s then-National Security and Defense Council secretary told BuzzFeed.
A whistleblower within the CIA has charged that, based on his secondhand understanding of the July 25 call, Trump suggested a quid pro quo over the funds, then tried to cover up details of the conversation.
The White House has strongly denied any wrongdoing, releasing a summary of the phone call to let Americans judge for themselves.
Democratic leaders have elected to move forward with an “official impeachment inquiry” into Trump, escalating a...
Read More HERE
No comments:
Post a Comment