Republicans and White House officials have tried to portray President Trump’s decision to hold $400 million in military aid to Ukraine as standard operating procedure. But a bunch of emails from within the federal budget office show they were scrambling to justify the decision, and even wondering if it was legal.Over the course of several weeks this summer, budget office director Mick Mulvaney and others in the Office of Management and Budget sought to develop an explanation for the hold, as outlined in emails between them, the Washington Post reported Sunday.In some exchanges from early August, Mulvaney reportedly asked the acting Office of Management and Budget director how much longer the White House could delay releasing the aid, which Congress approved as part of the 2019 budget, as well as what the agency decided was the legal rationale for withholding it.In others, Mulvaney made clear that Ukraine’s aid package was a priority for the Trump administration, the Post also reported.Those findings, which were relayed to the Post, were the result of a review conducted by the White House Counsel’s Office. The counsel’s office reportedly opened the review after House Democrats announced in September they would open an impeachment inquiry into President Trump, and it uncovered hundreds of documents.The issue of whether Trump used Congressionally-approved military aid as leverage to extort the Ukrainian government into investigating his political opponent is central to the impeachment proceedings.The emails show the extent to which Trump’s shadow foreign policy roiled officials in the White House and State Department.While the Post reports that it’s unclear whether the emails and other documents pose legal issues for the president, the White House’s lawyers are “expressing concern that the review has turned up some unflattering exchanges and facts that could at a minimum embarrass the president,” the Post reported.A spokesperson for the Office of Management and Budget, which oversees the preparation of the federal budget and helps the White House executive policy objectives, denied in a statement to the Post that the withholding of aid to Ukraine was improper.“There was a legal consensus at every step of the way that the money could be withheld to conduct the policy review,” the spokesperson, Rachel K. Semmel, said. “OMB works closely with agencies on executing the budget. Routine practices and procedures were followed, not scrambling.”On July 18, Mulvaney told officials at the Departments of State and Defense that the White House decided to put a hold on the $400 in military assistance to Ukraine. Just one week later, Trump spoke on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and urged him to investigate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, who previously sat on the board of a Ukrainian energy company."I would like you to do us a favor though, because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it," Trump said during that call, according to a White House memo outlining its contents."There's a lot of talk about Biden's son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great,” Trump continued. “Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it. . . . It sounds horrible to me."Cover: Acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney listens as President Donald Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan meet in the Oval Office with Republican senators at the White House Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2019, in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
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