White House budget office defends withholding Ukraine aid

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."

Several OMB officials have said freezing the aid was highly unusual, but OMB general counsel Mark Paoletta disagreed, writing in the memo that this was a routine matter. "Often, in managing appropriations, OMB must briefly pause an agency's legal ability to spend those funds for a number of reasons, including to ensure that the funds are being spent efficiently, that they are being spent in accordance with statutory directives, or to assess how or whether funds should be used for a particular activity," he said. Paoletta wrote the memo after the U.S. Government Accountability Office asked why the aid was delayed.