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JustSecurity.org: Exclusive: New Unredacted Emails Show How Deeply OMB Misled Congress on Ukraine
https://www.justsecurity.org/68614/exclusive-new-unredacted-emails-show-how-deeply-omb-misled-congress-on-ukraine/
by Kate Brannen
February 11, 2020
“Can we call you in 5, DoD is being extraordinarily difficult.”
It was almost 6 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 12, and Mark Paoletta, the general counsel at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), wanted to talk to his boss, Russell Vought, the acting director of OMB, about President Donald Trump’s hold on military assistance for Ukraine.
When the Trump administration released this email under court order to the nonprofit group American Oversight on Jan. 22, Paoletta’s complaint about DoD was redacted.
Just Security obtained this email without the redactions, as well as the others released on Jan. 22, under the condition that they not be reprinted. Similar to the unredacted emails Just Security reported on in January, these new emails shed further light on the standoff that took place between the Pentagon and OMB over Trump’s hold on Ukraine funding.
They confirm that OMB, including the general counsel’s office, was fully in the loop about the Pentagon’s concerns and took active steps to bury them. They also expose the extent to which OMB misled, and even lied to, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), a congressional investigative body, as the GAO tried to understand the circumstances surrounding the funding hold.
</snip>
by Kate Brannen
February 11, 2020
“Can we call you in 5, DoD is being extraordinarily difficult.”
It was almost 6 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 12, and Mark Paoletta, the general counsel at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), wanted to talk to his boss, Russell Vought, the acting director of OMB, about President Donald Trump’s hold on military assistance for Ukraine.
When the Trump administration released this email under court order to the nonprofit group American Oversight on Jan. 22, Paoletta’s complaint about DoD was redacted.
Just Security obtained this email without the redactions, as well as the others released on Jan. 22, under the condition that they not be reprinted. Similar to the unredacted emails Just Security reported on in January, these new emails shed further light on the standoff that took place between the Pentagon and OMB over Trump’s hold on Ukraine funding.
They confirm that OMB, including the general counsel’s office, was fully in the loop about the Pentagon’s concerns and took active steps to bury them. They also expose the extent to which OMB misled, and even lied to, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), a congressional investigative body, as the GAO tried to understand the circumstances surrounding the funding hold.
</snip>
5 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
Asking because, despite a cursory Google search, I'm not finding what penalties are in place when a government official lies to the GAO? 
