Thread by @saradannerdukic

“Clear direction from POTUS to continue to hold.”

You should read this. It perfectly encapsulates where we are right now, demonstrating 3 factions of people (more below).
justsecurity.org/67863/exclusiv…

The 3 factions: patriots trying to carry out the duties of the oath they took, non-patriots trying to undermine patriots via gaslighting, cover-ups and generally weaselly behavior, and...

weak a$$h0le$ who know what’s happening, do nothing to stop it, and focus on their primary objective of self-preservation.

Patriots are people like Elaine McCusker, acting Pentagon comptroller. Notice the “acting” part of her title. It’s by design that so many people in this administration are in constant limbo with no teeth or power behind their roles.

Anyway - McCusker repeatedly tries to warn everyone that 1. what looks to be happening is illegal and 2. withholding of aid is disastrous on multiple levels.

The DOJ, I’m assuming at the behest of Barr, redacted McCusker’s warnings and reactions on the first release of these emails.

On to non-patriots: Michael Duffey, associate director of national security programs at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). He comes off as a total weasel in these emails.

He plays dumb, trying to bait someone else (McCusker) into making an illegal directive: “The President has asked about this funding release, and I have been asked to follow-up with someone over there to get more detail. Do you have insight on this funding?”

But he’s not dumb - he knows exactly what he’s doing and why.

Hours after Trump’s call w/Zelensky, DUFFEY is the one who sends out the email:
“Given the sensitive nature of the request, I appreciate your keeping that information closely held to those who need to know to execute the direction. Please let me know if you have any questions.”

Later, McCusker tries to tell him that the pause could have real-world ramifications, ie lifting the pause at the 11th hour could be the same as giving no aid at all because they wouldn’t be able to spend the money by the end of the fiscal year:

“As we discussed, as of 12 AUG I don’t think we can agree that the pause ‘will not preclude timely execution.’ We hope it won’t and will do all we can to execute once the policy decision is made, but can no longer make that declarative statement.”

Duffey plays dumb again: “Good catch!”, he writes back.

McCusker continues to try everything she can think of to keep the aid process moving without breaking the law. By the end of August, it’s at the point that the aid funding will need to be impounded.

What is impoundment? In a nutshell, if a President wants to purposely underspend (or not spend at all) money that Congress has provided for a certain purpose, per the Impoundment Control Act of 1974, s/he has to go to Congress IN WRITING and explain why.

The purpose is to prevent the President from - basically - being a dictator and overriding Congress with no checks.

From the House Committee on Budget:
“The ICA requires that the President send a special message to Congress identifying the amount of the proposed rescission; the reasons for it; and the budgetary, economic, and programmatic effects of the rescission...

...Upon transmission of such special message, the President may withhold certain funding in the affected accounts for up to 45 legislative session days. If a law approving the rescission is not enacted within the 45 days, any withheld funds must be made available for obligation.”

(more here if you want to read yourself)
budget.house.gov/publications/r…

So McCusker is telling Duffey, IN WRITING, that they’re at the point where POTUS should be submitting ICA (impoundment) paperwork to Congress.

Duffey plays dumb again: Oh gee, was I supposed to be doing that?
“I am not tracking that. Is that something you are expecting from OMB?”

The DOJ, again I assume at the behest of Bill f*ckin’ Barr, REDACTED McCusker telling Duffey that at this point it is legally required to make a declaration IN WRITING, TO CONGRESS, that aid is being withheld to Ukraine, and why, and for how long.

The only thing they allow us to see is Duffey’s golly-gee-was-I-supposed-to-do-that? response.

Basically for months on end, Duffey at the OMB is playing dumb + purposely holding up the spending.

McCusker is telling anyone who will listen that something is not right at the OMB, that they’re misrepresenting what’s going on, and that disaster is on the horizon for Ukraine who desperately needs this help.

“OMB continues to ignore our repeated explanation regarding how the process works. We can not release funds for obligation until they can obligate, so the process has stopped for those cases whose lines are ready to execute.”

At this point, POTUS has been made aware that there’s a complaint.
nytimes.com/2019/11/26/us/…

Enter Pence, the third type of person we’re dealing with. The one who knows exactly WTF is happening but wants above all else to keep his hands clean.

“Pence met with Zelenskyy in Poland on Sept. 1. While Trump reportedly instructed Pence to communicate that U.S. military aid was still being withheld and to push for more aggressive action on corruption, ...

Pence’s staff has claimed the vice president did not understand corruption to mean 'investigate Joe Biden' as other officials in the administration understood at the time.”

Yeah, I'll bet.

Right after Pence gets back, McCusker again tells Duffey that impoundment paperwork is necessary and asks when to expect it.

Then it all comes to a head.

On September 9, the day that Schiff is made aware of the whistleblower’s complaint because the IC IG transmits a letter to HPSCI:
intelligence.house.gov/news/documents…

On September 9, the day that 3 House Committees launch investigations into Giuliani’s role in this shakedown:
intelligence.house.gov/uploadedfiles/…

September 9 - that’s the day DUFFEY gaslights McCusker:
“If you have not taken these steps, that is contrary to OMB’s direction and was your decision not to proceed. If you are unable to obligate the funds, it will have been DoD’s decision that cause any impoundment of funds.”

Gaslight translation: “We wanted to spend the money, but you decided not to. It’s your fault, not ours.”

McCusker’s response, in keeping with any normal human who’s being gaslit: “You can’t be serious. I am speechless.”

Dick Durbin, minority whip in the Senate tries to do something, offering an amendment to prevent Trump from doing the same thing again in the next fiscal year.

But lo and behold, Lindsey Graham reports that Trump has miraculously lifted the aid! No official anything in writing needed!
politico.com/story/2019/09/…

Duffey tells McCusker that the aid has been released, then can’t resist gaslighting her one last time:
“Glad to have this behind us.”

Again, everything I’ve commented on above is from this article. Please read:
justsecurity.org/67863/exclusiv…

MAIN TAKEAWAY: Trump and his helpers (like DUFFEY) knew what they were doing, and they knew it was wrong. If it had been with good reason, they could have/SHOULD have notified Congress. They didn’t. Instead, they covered up as much as they could, as quickly as they could.

And this is just one thing that we *KNOW* about.

Why do we know about it? Because we won the House in 2018.

The most important thing we can do this year is get people registered and to the polls. VOTE.