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In a bombshell move, the Government Accountability Office has concluded that President Trump did, in fact, break the law when he withheld Congressionally-approved aid to Ukraine last year. That move, tied to a request for a favor from Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, was the incident that kicked off the current impeachment saga.
What this will mean for Trump as the Senate moves into the proper impeachment proceedings is, as of yet, unclear. Up to this point, Senate Republicans have been all but unwavering in their defense of Trump’s conduct. Now that the GAO has confirmed that said conduct was illegal, however, it may be time for the President’s defenders to reckon with their official stance.
The Government Accountability Office, an independent watchdog within the US government, issued a statement on the Trump Administration’s conduct in their official ruling.
“In the summer of 2019, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) withheld from obligation funds appropriated to the Department of Defense (DOD) for security assistance to Ukraine,” the ruling reads.
“Faithful execution of the law does not permit the President to substitute his own policy priorities for those that Congress has enacted into law. OMB withheld funds for a policy reason, which is not permitted under the Impoundment Control Act (ICA). The withholding was not a programmatic delay. Therefore, we conclude that OMB violated the ICA.”
The Impoundment Control Act is the law that provides for how Congressionally-approved funds can be dispensed. It’s unclear what ramifications the administration will face for these crimes as the Senate moves into the impeachment trial proceedings.
After a month-long delay, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi passed the articles of impeachment along to the Senate so they could conduct their official trial. While Pelosi and Senate Democrats tried to maneuver for a Senate trial that would allow witnesses, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell resisted their attempts, putting the two factions into a stalemate.
With the news that the president’s conduct was, in fact, unlawful, it remains to be seen how Congressional Republicans will try to handle the political backlash of defending conduct that is literally against the law.
