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Unredacted emails on Trump’s withholding of aid from Ukraine unless they launched an investigation into Joe Biden has blown up Mitch McConnell’s impeachment trial scam.

Just Security reviewed the unredacted emails and reported:



The documents reveal growing concern from Pentagon officials that the hold would violate the Impoundment Control Act, which requires the executive branch to spend money as appropriated by Congress, and that the necessary steps to avoid this result weren’t being taken. Those steps would include notifying Congress that the funding was being held or shifted elsewhere, a step that was never taken. The emails also show that no rationale was ever given for why the hold was put in place or why it was eventually lifted.

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What is clear is that it all came down to the president and what he wanted; no one else appears to have supported his position. Although the pretext for the hold was that some sort of policy review was taking place, the emails make no mention of that actually happening. Instead, officials were anxiously waiting for the president to be convinced that the hold was a bad idea. And while the situation continued throughout the summer, senior defense officials were searching for legal guidance, worried they would be blamed should the hold be lifted too late to actually spend all of the money, which would violate the law.

Mitch McConnell’s entire justification for a quickie impeachment trial has been that there is no evidence and nothing that would merit calling witnesses to testify at Trump’s impeachment trial, but these emails tell a different tale.

There is a whole lot to see here, including an administration that was lined up against a president who was the only person blocking military aid to Ukraine unless they investigated Joe Biden.

Given this new evidence, Republican Senators whose seats are at risk in 2020 may not be able to go along with Mitch McConnell’s sham Trump impeachment trial.

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