The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) violated the law when it withheld military aid to Ukraine that was approved by Congress, the Government Accountability Office said in a Jan. 16 legal opinion.
The OMB froze the congressionally approved $250 million appropriated to the Department of Defense for security assistance to Ukraine to review corruption issues in Ukraine, President Donald Trump said. The office withheld the funds by issuing a series of documents, nine in total, that pushed back giving the funds to Ukraine. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said in December 2019 that the aid didn’t have any impact on U.S. national security.
