New Documents Reveal Pentagon Anger Over Holdup In Ukraine Aid
By: R. Jeffrey Smith, The Center for Public Integrity, January 2, 2020
President Trump’s private decision to temporarily halt national security assistance to Ukraine last summer ignited increasingly strident protests from Defense Department officials who said in emails it was illegal and Congress should be notified, newly disclosed documents reveal.
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Daniel Stevens, executive director of the Campaign for Accountability, a Washington-based government watchdog group, said the new disclosures indicate the redactions made by the Trump administration in documents it provided to Public Integrity were unfounded.
“Federal agencies should not be able to hide behind the FOIA to prevent unflattering facts from being released to the public,” Stevens said. “These documents provide crucial information about how the Trump Administration ignored a congressional requirement to spend government funds … Federal agencies must be held accountable for attempting to withhold information from the public through unfounded redactions.”