The military aid was eventually released...BEFORE the deadline
The deadline in question is the end of the fiscal year, September 30th. Close to $400 in military aid was allocated by Congress in a budget approved by Trump. When Congressional leaders, including Republicans, realized that a freeze had been put on the funds, they asked for an explanation from the administration, and received none. The funds were released two days after Congress was notified about the whistle-blower complaint.
The military aid was held up due to concerns about corruption in Ukraine
There have been concerns in the last few years about corruption in Ukraine. The military aid, however, had been approved after the Defense Department Undersecretary for Policy, in May 2019, certified that Ukraine had made progress toward eliminating corruption. No new information has come out about renewed concerns about Ukrainian corruption.
The military aid was held up and subsequently released, because we needed to "vet" the new president of Ukraine
Zelensky was elected in April. No explanation of what constituted this "vetting"
Investigations into the Bidens have not happened (yet)
In the infamous July 25th phone call, Zelensky agreed to start an investigation after Trump asked him to "do us a favor though". Would an investigation, or at least a public announcement that such an investigation was happening, have begun if the whistle-blower complaint not made its way to Congress and subsequently been leaked to the public? Trump's position has been that it's his job to be concerned about rooting out corruption in countries who receive aid from us, and he believes that the Bidens were corrupt. Why is it no longer a priority for Ukraine to start an investigation? Wouldn't a refusal by Zelensky to look into this "corruption" indicate that Ukraine was still a hotbed of corruption? If it's not about scoring points against a political opponent, but a sincere desire to do the right thing, why are we backing off the demand that there be an investigation into the Bidens?
Numerous meetings took place between Zelensky & American officials without linking the aid to investigations
We don't really know what went on in those conversations, except the July 25th call, in which there is a clear implied linkage between aid and investigations. Ambassador Sondland has testified that on September 1st he clearly told Zelensky that aid would be forthcoming after Zelensky (or possibly the top prosecutor) made a public announcement about opening corruption investigations.
This line of defense seems to be that Ukraine got their money without any investigations, so nothing actually happened. The weak point in their argument is that the timing of the release of funds is suspicious. The funds were being held up for reasons that make little sense. Supposedly they were being held up because we thought Ukraine was corrupt, even though Trump's own administration certified that they had made enough progress regarding corruption that they could receive aid. What does make sense is that during this time period Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, was fueling Trump's paranoia that Ukraine was out to get him, and pushing conspiracy theories that it was Ukraine, not Russia, who interfered in the 2016 election on behalf of not Trump, but Clinton. In the July phone call, Trump brings up the debunked theory that the DNC server, which was never "missing" was somewhere in Ukraine.
The "witnesses" are peddling nothing but second and third-hand information
Other than Lt. Col. Vindman. All the officials who have first-hand information about what Trump said or did are refusing to testify or are asking the courts to rule.
Trump's defenders hang their hats on narrow and literal statements and ignore the actions of Giuliani that are taking place outside of official channels during these official meetings. Most of the statements and actions by Trump and his subordinates can be explained away, but only if you take them in isolation, instead of as a web, a pattern, that clearly points to a president who formed his opinion about Ukraine based on debunked, tin-foil-hat conspiracy theories, and attempted to use his position to advance his personal, political aims
No comments:
Post a Comment