Menendez calls on State to open investigation into delay in Ukraine aid

Source: The Hill | September 24, 2019 | Jordain Carney

Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is requesting that the State Department’s top watchdog open an investigation into the administration’s decision to delay assistance to Ukraine.

Menendez sent a letter to State Department inspector general Steve Linick about a decision within the administration to delay more than $141 million in aid to Ukraine. Lawmakers are questioning whether the delay was tied to efforts by Trump to reportedly pressure Ukraine’s leaders into investigating former Vice President Biden or his son.

“If the president withheld the funds to extract commitments by the Ukranian government to take action against a political opponent of the president, it would constitute an unacceptable abuse of power and subversion of U.S. foreign policy and foreign assistance funds under the purview of the State Department for the personal use of the president,” Menendez wrote in the letter to Linick.

Menendez is asking Linick to investigate the State Department’s involvement in the delay of the funds, which were ultimately released.

He also asked Linick to look into why the funds were delayed and then released, if the law was followed and any communications between the State Department, the White House and OMB about Ukraine assistance.

Trump appeared to acknowledge on Sunday that he had discussed Joe Biden on the call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. But he said on Monday that he did not threaten to withhold aid to Ukraine unless they investigated the Biden family.

Menendez also sent a letter on Tuesday to acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney asking for details on who decided to block the assistance funding, if Trump asked him to withhold the funds and why the funding was ultimately released.

The Washington Post reported on Monday night that Trump instructed Mulvaney to place a hold on nearly $400 million in military aid to Ukraine shortly before a phone call in which he allegedly tried to persuade Ukraine’s president to investigate the Bidens.

The senior administration officials told the Post that officials within OMB passed the order on to the Defense and State departments in mid-July at an interagency meeting.

Menendez, in his letter to Mulvaney, wants to know which State Department officials were told of the decision.

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