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The government watchdog agency Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is responding to Democrats and media reports that have been calling for additional articles of impeachment. The response comes after The New York Times published a misleading article concerning the Trump-Ukraine phone call.
The New York Times reported what it believed to be new evidence against the President in th for m of new emails released by the Pentagon show that Trump White House officials discussed suspending military aid to Ukraine 91 minutes after President Trump spoke with President Zelensky.
The email was leaked to The New York Times by the George Soros-funded Center for Public Integrity.
Democrats, led by New York Senator Chuck Schumer, were quick to pounce on the Times story with calls for additional months of hearings in the House and new witnesses in a Senate trial.
The media broadcast the revelations in the days leading up to Christmas.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) cites “explosive” email from WH aide as evidence for why witnesses should be called in the Senate’s impeachment trial; the email shows a request to freeze aid came 90 minutes after Pres. Trump’s July 25 call https://t.co/40Dq9NJ4bd pic.twitter.com/54CpfdfKlD
— CBS Evening News (@CBSEveningNews) December 23, 2019
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) cites "explosive" email from WH aide as evidence for why witnesses should be called in the Senate's impeachment trial; the email shows a request to freeze aid came 90 minutes after Pres. Trump's July 25 call https://t.co/40Dq9NJ4bd pic.twitter.com/54CpfdfKlD
— CBS Evening News (@CBSEveningNews) December 23, 2019
But, there’s just one problem. The news reports were all wrong.
The official government watchdog agency, the OMB, refuted the media and democrat claims by announcing the hold on Ukrainian aid was announced seven days before the cJuly 25 call between Trump and the Ukrainian president.
The news site Breitbart stated that:
The Center for Public Integrity was harping on one line within 146 pages of documents that the organization obtained to paint an inaccurate and misleading picture of the timing of the aid hold.
The OMB strongly denied that the email, one of many, had anything to do with Trump’s phone call, explaining the communication was part of an ongoing process put into place one week early.
The email being hyped by the media shows an official with the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Mike Duffey, contacted Pentagon officials 91 minutes after Trump’s call with Zelensky to discuss withholding aid.
For its part, OMB spokesperson Rachel Semmel, told reporters it was “reckless to tie the hold of funds to the phone call.”
“As has been established and publicly reported, the hold was announced in an interagency meeting on July 18,” she said. “To pull a line out of one email and fail to address the context is misleading and inaccurate.”
A senior administration official further said the email was part of a discussion already going on for one week between OMB and the Pentagon about withholding aid.
As of Thursday morning, many news outlets continue to publish the false information published by the New York Times.
–Metro Voice and wire services
