(Bloomberg) -- The White House budget office violated federal law when it withheld about $214 million appropriated by Congress to the Defense Department for security aid to Ukraine, an independent congressional watchdog agency concluded.
“Faithful execution of the law does not permit the president to substitute his own policy priorities for those that Congress has enacted into law,” the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office said in a report released Thursday. The Office of Management and Budget “withheld funds for a policy reason, which is not permitted under the Impoundment Control Act.”
The delay in delivering security aid to Ukraine last summer is central to the impeachment case against President Donald Trump brought by the House. The impeachment articles charge that Trump withheld the aid, and a White House visit by Ukraine’s new president, in order to force the government there to announce an investigation that would entangle one of Trump’s chief political rivals, former Vice President Joe Biden. They also accuse Trump of blocking documents and testimony about the Ukraine aid.
Democrats said the report bolsters their argument that when Trump’s trial in the Senate gets underway, Republicans should allow introduction of witnesses and evidence that weren’t available to House investigators.
“The GAO’s independent findings reinforce the need for the Senate to obtain all relevant documents and hear from key fact witnesses in order to have a fair trial,” Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, who requested the GAO investigation in December, said in a statement.
The Office of Management and Budget disputed the GAO’s conclusions.
“We disagree with GAO’s opinion. OMB uses its apportionment authority to ensure taxpayer dollars are properly spent consistent with the President’s priorities and with the law,” OMB spokeswoman Rachel Semmel said.
The GAO report was released hours before senators were set to be sworn in as jurors in Trump’s impeachment trial.
Under the 1974 Impoundment Control Act, the executive branch is legally obligated to spend the money that Congress approves and which the president signs into law.
Investigation
The aid was held up at the same time Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani was making a backchannel approach to Ukraine as part of an effort to get the government there to announce an investigation into Biden and his son Hunter Biden, who had been on the board of a Ukrainian energy company, according to testimony in the House impeachment inquiry.
The aid was aimed at helping Ukraine fend off Russian-backed separatists. It was eventually released in September -- after members of Congress began questioning the delay and a whistle-blower raised an alarm about Trump’s phone call with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
“The aid got out with no detriment to our national security,” Defense Department spokesman Jonathan Hoffman told reporters at the Pentagon on Thursday.
The GAO report contends that “There was no external factor causing an unavoidable delay. Rather, OMB on its own volition explicitly barred DOD from obligating amounts.”
The OMB has previously argued that it has authority to pause the spending of appropriated funds for a variety 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.”
Democratic Senators Dick Durbin of Illinois and Debbie Stabenow of Michigan said in interviews that the GAO report adds to their push to bring in acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, OMB officials and documents discussing the holdup in Ukraine aid at the heart of the impeachment battle.
“How many times have we heard Republicans say ‘there’s no crime here, no law broken.’ Now the Government Accountability Office has said otherwise,” Durbin said.
Democrats also want testimony from former Trump National Security Advisor John Bolton, who’s said he’d be willing to appear under a subpoena from the Senate.
Democrats would need to persuade at least four Republicans to vote in favor of calling witnesses during the Senate trial. Senators Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Mitt Romney and Lamar Alexander have said they’re open to hearing new testimony, though they’ve not committed to calling any of those who Democrats are seeking to call.
--With assistance from Erik Wasson, Steven T. Dennis and Josh Wingrove.
To contact the reporter on this story: Daniel Flatley in Washington at dflatley1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net, Kevin Whitelaw
©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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