Pentagon certified Ukraine had taken 'substantial actions' to clean up corruption, green lighting $250M in military aid in May
Foxnews
President Trump has cited corruption in Ukraine as one of the reasons his administration withheld $250 million in military aid beginning in July, ahead of a controversial July 25 phone call with his Ukrainian counterpart.
But Fox News has confirmed that the Pentagon’s undersecretary for policy, John Rood, sent a letter to Capitol Hill lawmakers in May certifying “the government of Ukraine has taken substantial actions to make defense institutional reforms for the purposes of decreasing corruption [and] increasing accountability,” as first reported by NPR.
The $250 million in military aid was released on Sept. 11, a day afterHouse Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., made a formal request to transmit a whistleblower complaint concerning the president's Ukraine call to the committee. To date, $225 million has been allocated, according to defense officials.
Trump has repeatedly said his July call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was "perfect.
" Trump has also denied withholding the aid to motivate Ukrainian officials to investigate potential 2020 election rival Joe Biden, his son Hunter, and their business activity in Ukraine.
Zelensky said Wednesday that Trump had not pressured him during their phone call over the summer.
"Nobody pushed me," he said at a bilateral meeting with Trump at the United Nations General Assembly in New York City. “We had a great phone call. It was normal.”
The transcript of the call was released Thursday.
It shows the president sought an investigation from Ukraine into the Biden family, though it does not show Trump explicitly leveraging U.S. aid as had initially been suggested.
Trump returned to Joint Base Andrews on Thursday and called the allegations, which have spurred a House impeachment inquiry, "another witch hunt."
He tweeted earlier about the call, saying it was a "very nice, no pressure call."
"Here we go again. It's Adam Schiff and his crew making up stories," Trump told reporters, noting: "It's a terrible thing for our country."
"It was an absolutely perfect phone call to the new president of Ukraine," he added.
On June 18, the Defense Department announced $250 million in aid to Ukraine.
On July 25, Trump had the now-controversial call with Zelensky.
A month later, on Aug. 26, the whistleblower complaint was forwarded to Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire.
Schiff subpoenaed Maguire on Sept. 13, claiming the acting director was unlawfully withholding a whistleblower complaint from Congress, possibly to protect the president or top administration officials. Maguire testified publicly before the committee on Thursday.
Defense Secretary Mark Esper tweeted on Sept. 18 that he had a "productive call" with Ukraine's defense minister.
"I am optimistic about his vision for MoD [the Ministry of Defense] and commitment to defense and anti-corruption reforms.
I expressed unwavering U.S. support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity," Esper said.
On Wednesday, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., asked the Pentagon Office of the Inspector General to investigate the Defense Department's potential role in withholding $250 million in military aid to Ukraine.
"I’m calling on the DoD OIG to investigate the withholding of Ukraine military aid appropriated by Congress, allegedly at the direction of the White House.
"The delay raises questions about whether DoD officials were involved in any scheme to target a political opponent," he tweeted.
Fox News' Ronn Blitzer contributed to this report.
Judicial Watch sues State Department for info on Bidens' dealings in Ukraine
This article was sourced from Foxnews
The transparency group Judicial Watch announced Thursday it had filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the State Department, seeking more information about Joe Biden's boast that he pressured Ukraine to fire its top prosecutor.
The litigation came a day after President Trump, seeking to turn the tables against Democrats as they pursue an impeachment inquiry, highlighted what he called Biden's own possible misconduct while in office.
“The latest assault on President Trump is an obvious attempt to protect Joe Biden from the corruption scandals involving his son,” Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton said in a statement.
“Judicial Watch’s latest lawsuit will be the first of many to try to get to the bottom of this influence-peddling scandal.”
Biden has acknowledged on camera that, when he was vice president, he successfully pressured Ukraine to fire that prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, who was investigating the natural gas firm Burisma Holdings — where his son Hunter Biden had a highly lucrative role on the board reportedly paying him tens of thousands of dollars per month, despite limited relevant expertise.
The former vice president specifically said he threatened to pull nearly $1 billion in Obama administration loan guarantees if Shokin wasn't fired, potentially crippling Ukraine's government.
Shokin himself had been widely accused of corruption, while critics charged that Hunter Biden might have been essentially selling access to his father, who had pushed Ukraine to increase its natural gas production.
Judicial Watch said it was pursuing from the State Department "any and all records regarding, concerning, or related to Viktor Shokin’s investigation of [former Ukrainian energy official] Mykola Zlochevsky and Shokin’s resignation at Ukraine’s Prosecutor General."
Additionally, the organization sought "any and all records of communication between any official, employee, or representative of the Department of State and any official, employee, or representative of the Office of the Vice President regarding Viktor Shokin.
"
The lawsuit came only after the State Department refused to turn over the records after receiving a request in May, according to Judicial Watch.
The State Department has not "produced the requested records or demonstrated that the requested records are lawfully exempt from production .
... notified [Judicial Watch] of the scope of any responsive records it intends to produce or withhold and the reasons for any withholdings ... or informed [Judicial Watch] that it may appeal any adequately specific, adverse determination," Judicial Watch said in its complaint.
Following Trump's fiery remarks in New York on Wednesday, political scientist Ian Bremmer argued that Hunter Biden's lucrative business work in Ukraine -- rather than Biden's decision to force out Ukraine's prosecutor -- was the real scandal.
"Impossible to justify $50k/month for Hunter Biden serving on a Ukrainian energy board w zero expertise unless he promised to sell access," Bremmer wrote.
And Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, who has long publicly pushed Ukraine to look into the Bidens, echoed the president's call for "transparency" from the Biden in a series of social media posts -- and directly accused Biden of corruption..
"We know corrupt Ukrainian oligarch laundered $3 million to the Biden Family," Giuliani wrote on Twitter. "But $3 to $4m more was laundered to Biden. So release all the financial records of all businesses involving Biden, Kerry’s stepson and notorious mobster Whitey Bulger’s nephew."
He added: "Biden should agree to release records to see if he flew Hunter to China in Dec.
2013 on AF 2 to facilitate Hunter’s sale of his office to China for a total of $1.5 billion. Is there any doubt that China paid it to compromise VP. But they bought another pol as well. Guess?"
The Trump attorney insisted Biden, one of the frontrunners for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, has high-level help.
"Democrat party is covering up a pattern of corruption involving high level members of the Obama cabinet," Giuliani said. "The multi-million and billion dollar pay-for-play is mind boggling. Biden Family sale of office to Ukraine was not the only one or the most egregious. Slimy Joe is not alone."