White House ‘broke law’ in freezing Ukraine aid

Things to watch for as US Senate prepares to set Trump case in motion

washington — The White House violated federal law in withholding security assistance to Ukraine, an action at the center of President Donald Trump’s impeachment, a federal watchdog agency said on Thursday.

The Government Accountability Office said in a report that the Office of Management and Budget violated the law in holding up the aid, which Congress passed less than a year ago, saying “the president is not vested with the power to ignore or amend any such duly enacted law.”

The aid in question was held up last summer on orders from Trump but was released in September after Congress pushed for its release and a whistleblower’s complaint about Trump’s July call with the Ukrainian leader became public.

The independent agency, which reports to Congress, said OMB violated the Impoundment Control Act in delaying the security assistance Congress authorised for Ukraine for “policy reasons,” rather than technical budgetary needs.

“Faithful execution of the law does not permit the President to substitute his own policy priorities for those that Congress has enacted into law,” wrote the agency’s general counsel, Thomas Armstrong, in the report.

Capitol Hill Democrats seized on the report as evidence of a lawless White House. —

The impeachment of President Donald Trump is the Senate’s challenge now. Directed by the Constitution, House officials and prosecutors somberly carried the articles through the dimly lit Capitol to the Senate on Wednesday evening, triggering a trial unlike any since President Bill Clinton’s in 1999. He was acquitted.

Look Thursday for a series of striking ceremonial matters to set up the Senate as a court of impeachment. Oaths is taken. An oath bookis signed. And the seven House prosecutors, called managers, appointed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi make an appearance in the well of the Senate to present the articles. Then the senators will be commanded to surrender their phones, pay attention and not talk — a whole other level of challenge, especially for the four Democrats running for president ahead of the Feb. 3 Iowa caucuses.

House members voted 228-193, largely along party lines, to give the Senate the task of putting the Republican president on trial on charges of abuse of power for asking Ukraine to investigate political rival Joe Biden and obstruction of Congress for blocking testimony and documents sought by Democratic lawmakers.

The Senate is expected to acquit Trump, keeping him in office, as none of its 53 Republicans has voiced support for removing him, a step that requires a twothirds majority.

A close associate of President Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani is claiming Trump was directly involved in the effort to pressure Ukraine to investigate Democratic rival Joe Biden.

Lev Parnas says he delivered an ultimatum in May, at Giuliani’s behest, to the incoming president of Ukraine that no senior US officials would attend his inauguration and vital American security aid would be withheld if an investigation into Biden wasn’t announced. He said Trump was aware of Giuliani’s efforts to secure an investigation and the president was briefed regularly. If true, Parnas’ account undercuts a key Republican defense of Trump during the impeachment investigation — that Trump’s withholding of vital military aid to Ukraine last summer wasn’t a quid pro quo for Biden investigations.

“President Trump knew exactly what was going on,” said Parnas, a Soviet-born Florida businessman facing a raft of criminal charges related to campaign finance violations. “He was aware of all my movements. I wouldn’t do anything without the consent of Rudy Giuliani, or the President.”

What to watch when the Senate opens for impeachment business:

House members in the senate

At noon Thursday, the seven House managers will again cross the Capitol and be escorted into the well of the Senate, this time to formally present the articles of impeachment. They charge Trump with abuse of power by pressuring Ukraine to help him politically and obstructing Congress’s

probe into what happened. The prosecution team is led by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff of California and Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler of New Yrok, who oversaw the impeachment investigation and hearings. The others are Reps. Zoe Lofgren of California, Hakeem Jeffries of New York, Val Demings of Florida, Jason Crow of Colorado and Sylvia Garcia of Texas. All have backgrounds in the law. Their challenge is to persuade four Republicans to join all Senate Democrats in demanding that the trial include new documents and witnesses most in the GOP senators would like to avoid. Even that modest goal could prove difficult.

Oaths

In another extraordinary visual, Chief Justice John Roberts will make an appearance in the chamber. Senate Pro Tempore Chuck Grassley of Iowa will administer Roberts’ oath as the court’s presiding officer. Roberts, in turn, will swear in the senators, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said.

‘Impartial justice’

The senators will swear to administer “impartial justice” on the articles, or charges. But already, the senator-jurors are questioning whether that’s possible.

McConnell has given his flat-out answer. “I’m not an impartial juror,” he declared last month. The process is inherently political.

He also said he’s coordinating tightly with the White House, a statement Democrats said was proof of McConnell’s partiality. Republicans, meanwhile, have pointed out that Democrats have widely spoken of their disdain for Trump and cast doubt on his fitness for office.

The gang

Watch the moderates for an emerging gang of three to four who could influence the outcome on such matters as whether to subpoena former national security adviser John Bolton. That vote won’t be taken for days if not weeks.

Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine has been meeting with a small number of GOP colleagues who want to consider witness testimony and documents that weren’t part of the House impeachment investigation. Watch Republican Sens. Mitt Romney of Utah, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska for signs of whether this group can stick together and force the Senate to consider additional material.

The four

Senators love to talk. So the impeachment trial rule against speaking or consulting their phones on the Senate floor has the potential to chafe.

None moreso, however, than the four Democratic senators forced to decamp from Iowa less than three weeks before the election’s leadoff caucuses. Look for Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Michael Bennet of Colorado to send surrogates to Iowa or make short trips back and forth.

“I’ve told them this trial is your responsibility as senators and scheduling is not going to influence what we should do,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said last month. He said none of them objected.

Full swing

The Senate is pausing for the Martin Luther King Jr. weekend. Arguments begin on Tuesday.

They have a hoax going on over there, let’s take care of it.” donald Trump, US President

He (President Trump) was aware of all my movements. I wouldn’t do anything without the consent of Rudy Giuliani or the president.” lev parnas, an associate of Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani

We’ve always felt a certain urgency about this impeachment, given that the President was trying to get foreign help in cheating in the next election.”

House Intelligence Committee chairman adam schiff, d-California

This is a difficult time for our country, but this is precisely the kind of time for which the framers created the Senate.” mitch mcConnell, republican senate leader