A federal watchdog later determined that the withholding of the aid was illegal. As a result, investigators ended up with several blind spots about how and why the Ukraine aid was put on hold. The Trump administration changed that and began supplying Stinger missiles.”Īmong the nine aides who put up stiff resistance to the impeachment inquiry were Russell Vought, who served as Trump’s budget director, and a top Vought deputy, Michael Duffey. “The Obama administration had refused to provide lethal aid to Ukraine, such as Stinger missiles, because President Obama did not want to piss off Vladimir Putin,” Paoletta said. Mark Paoletta, who served as general counsel at the Office of Management and Budget at the time, told POLITICO that the hold “did not cause any lapsing of funds,” and cited data showing that a higher percentage of Ukraine funds set aside by Congress were obligated in 2019 than in the last year of the Obama administration. Those who were intimately involved in holding back the aid say there’s no further probing necessary.

Those aides - high-ranking budget, State Department and White House officials - have still never revealed key accounts at the heart of the controversy.

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