Stirring up the base - Part 2

Previously, on the Lee Zeldin Alarm Hour.



This hour's episode:

White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) official Mark Sandy, who testified in the impeachment inquiry Saturday, told congressional investigators that he did not know why aid to Ukraine was held up, The New York Times reported, citing two sources.

Sandy also said he had never come across a similar situation during his time with the OMB.

[...]

Sandy testified Saturday in the impeachment probe into President Trump after he was subpoenaed by House Democrats, making him the latest to defy the White House's attempt to prevent officials from testifying in the inquiry. He is the first budget official to testify.

  The Hill

Take it away New York Times...

Mark Sandy, a senior budget official, [...] told investigators that political appointees above him did not provide a rationale for the hold and that he had never encountered a similar situation in his time at the agency, according to two people familiar with his testimony.

Mr. Sandy also said that he had sought guidance on the legality of the move, echoing testimony from a Defense Department official who said that she had raised legal concerns.

  NYT

If I'm not mistaken, they're talking about taking their concerns to John Eisenberg, the top legal adviser to the National Security Council, assistant to the president and deputy counsel to the president for national security affairs. Eisenberg was subpoenaed to testify and refused. And  I still can't believe they let these people get away with refusing a Congressional subpoena.

Mr. Sandy was the first budget official to speak with impeachment investigators. At least three higher-profile Trump administration officials connected to the budget office have stiff-armed the inquiry: Russell T. Vought, the agency’s acting director; Michael Duffey, who helped carry out Mr. Trump’s directive to freeze the aid; and Mick Mulvaney, who retains the title of budget director and is the acting White House chief of staff.

He testified that he was directed to sign paperwork on July 25 enforcing the hold, but that Mr. Duffey, a political appointee, signed such paperwork going forward, a highly unusual intervention by his account.

Does any of that sound "bad for Schiff's fairy tale" to you?

Me either.

How about this...

Sandy is the first OMB official to testify, which he did for almost six hours under subpoena, according to an official working on the impeachment inquiry. OMB had instructed him not to cooperate.

[...]

The testimony from Mark Sandy, the first employee of OMB to testify in the House impeachment probe, appeared to confirm Democrats’ assertion that the decision to withhold nearly $400 million in congressionally approved funds for Ukraine, including millions in lethal aid, was a political one.

[...]

Other witnesses have testified that the letter Sandy signed was dated July 25 — the same day that President Trump spoke by phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and one week after OMB verbally informed interagency officials that they were withholding the funds on orders from the White House. The signature of Sandy’s boss, political appointee Michael Duffey, appears on subsequent letters.

  WaPo

Yeah, Duffey, former head of the Wisconsin Republican Party, skipped out on his scheduled hearing, too.

Does this whole thing stink enough yet? No? Okay, here's more...

Sandy testified that the change came about when Duffey told him he wanted to learn more about the budget apportionment process. Sandy thought this was odd, the people familiar with his testimony said — and he told investigators that he suggested to Duffey that if he wanted to learn more about the process, there were other ways to do it. But Duffey insisted.

Sandy testified that he had never in his career seen a senior political OMB official assume control of a portfolio in such a fashion [but] did not raise a fuss because he wanted to keep his job.

His testimony does not appear to shed any new light on whether the Trump administration’s decision to withhold Ukraine aid was leverage to pressure that country’s government to launch investigations against Trump’s political rivals. But it undermines acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney’s public assertion that the Ukraine aid was frozen in a routine manner that happened “all the time.”

Have you noticed that all the honest people are appearing under subpoena - as they are required by law to do? Well, Gordon Sondland appeared, as I assume he wasn't willing to break the law and defy his subpoena like the Trump loyalists Perry, Mulvaney and his adviser Robert Blair, Giuliani, Duffey, Eisenberg and his deputy Michael Ellis, and Brian McCormack from OMB. Sondland also wasn't smart enough to tell the truth, and he's up Schiff's creek now.

Dear Mr. Zeldin: Stop digging.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.