President Trump’s private decision to temporarily halt national security assistance to Ukraine last summer ignited increasingly strident protests from Defense Department officials who said in emails it was illegal and Congress should be notified, newly disclosed documents reveal.
The top Pentagon official responsible for disbursing the aid complained to colleagues and the White House Office of Management and Budget that OMB’s top lawyer had consistently misunderstood or mischaracterized how urgently the aid must be disbursed to comply with Congress’s orders, as the law required.