I’m getting over an illness and have had family in town for the holidays but I wanted to push one article before a larger update tomorrow. It’s a huge story.

An aide to Mulvaney let him know congress would be “unhinged” when they found out the White House would be withholding the congressionally mandated aide to Ukraine.

Mike Pompeo, John Bolton, and defense secretary Mark Esper met with Trump in August urging him to send the aid.

The White House scrambled to invent a legal justification for withhold the aid.

A White House appointee told the Department of Defense they needed to come up with a reason for the delay to deflect blame from the White House.

Lawyers at OMB wanted to argue that Trump could simply ignore the Impoundment Control Act. (Withholding the aid was violating this law.)

I’d urge you to read this entire article.