Kate Brannen has a long and hair-raising explanation of exactly what happened between the White House and the Pentagon during the struggle over getting the Congressionally approved funding for Ukraine released.

The basic story: the Pentagon tried like hell to get the OMB to release the money and the OMB refused and also blew smoke about what it was doing, and the Justice Department redacted the most damning evidence, not for reasons of national security or national anything else but to cover Trump’s ass.

Lemme repeat that.

The Justice Department redacted the most damning evidence not for reasons of national security or national anything else but to cover Trump’s ass.

“Clear direction from POTUS to continue to hold.”

This is what Michael Duffey, associate director of national security programs at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), told Elaine McCusker, the acting Pentagon comptroller, in an Aug. 30 email, which has only been made available in redacted form until now. It is one of many documents the Trump administration is trying to keep from the public, despite congressional oversight efforts and court orders in Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) litigation.

The Trump administration is trying to hide this from us because it is so incriminating. That’s all. There’s nothing cleaner or less incriminating to say about it, it’s just Trump’s filthy enablers doing his filthy work.

Congress passed the aid overwhelmingly, Republicans as well as Democrats. Trump put a hold on it to extort Ukraine. The Pentagon kept trying to get it released, the trumpers kept refusing to release it, and the DoJ tried to cover the whole thing up. It’s filthy.

Last month, a court ordered the government to release almost 300 pages of emails to the Center for Public Integrity in response to a FOIA lawsuit. It released a first batch on Dec. 12, and then a second installment on Dec. 20, including Duffey’s email, but that document, along with several others, were partially or completely blacked out.

Blacked out because they incriminate Trump. Hey, isn’t there an election coming up? Don’t we need to know what Trump has been doing (barring national security secrets) to make an informed choice? Is it cool for Trump to hide information that makes him look criminally indifferent to anything but his own desire to damage a rival? Is it cool for Trump to use the powers of the office we need to kick him out of, to hide information that would get him kicked out of it?

The punchline at the end is that the Trump stooge told the Pentagon the hold was all their fault.

Duffey, adding OMB and Pentagon lawyers to the recipients list, and in a formal and lengthy letter that was quite different from the way he’d addressed McCusker all summer, chastised her and the Defense Department for dropping the ball, saying that if and when the hold is lifted, and DOD finds itself unable to obligate the funding, it would be DOD’s fault. 

“As you know, the President wanted a policy process run to determine the best use of these funds, and he specifically mentioned this to the SecDef the previous week. OMB developed a footnote authorizing DoD to proceed with all processes necessary to obligate funds. If you have not taken these steps, that is contrary to OMB’s direction and was your decision not to proceed. If you are unable to obligate the funds, it will have been DoD’s decision that cause any impoundment of funds.”

Essentially: You guys screwed up. Not us. 

McCusker responded:

“You can’t be serious. I am speechless.”

It’s how they roll.