and then we have the press conference of october 17 when mick mulvaney left the cat fully out of the bag. he revealed president trump talk to him, the corruption related to the dnc server and admitted that s why we held up the money. any other explanation for the hold is a farce. in my remaining 30 seconds, so people understand what i referred to, in the 1970s, richard nixon arbitrarily decided, i don t know if it was because he had a general skepticism of foreign aid but richard nixon decided to hold up congressionally mandated aid and as a result congress went to work and passed the impoundment control act of 1974 which prohibits the president from withholding congressionally appropriated funds without the approval of congress for any reason. is that correct, ms. cooper? i m not a lawyer but that
wrong but it s illegal. ms. cooper, help us walk through this. since the impoundment control act of 1974, the president has not have the authority to on a whim or out of prudence or as republicans say because of general skepticism of foreign aid, to stop foreign aid. this cooper, under the constitution, it is congress not the president that controls the power of the purse. correct? yes, sir. the security assistance authorized to ukraine was authorized and appropriated by the congress, correct? yes, sir. congress is also concerned about corruption. it was to ensure american foreign assistance is spent wisely and does not worsen corruption. so when congress authorizes this money, it built in conditions, as mr. ratcliffe suggested, by law ukraine wouldn t get all the money until he demonstrated that a that undertaken substantial anticorruption reforms. ms. cooper, the department of
approximates my understanding of the provision of the impoundment control act. i will go with that, thank you very much. mr. conaway. as paul harvey said, here s the rest of the story. certain issues with respect to the certification. dod certification was not corruption writ large through the entire country of ukraine. it was focused on defense institutional reforms and combat capability. that is correct. ms. cooper, thank you for being here. i appreciate it. my colleagues seem to leave that out. he left off the correct emphas emphasis. certification in may didn t really speak to the broader concept of corruption throughout the rest of ukraine that the president would be familiar with, the the main certification was specific to the defense sector,