investigation on the administration. the administration blocked every single one of them. did not produce a single piece of paper. the reason we saw this email involving michael duffey is because there was a separate freedom of information lawsuit. it was a fluke this email came out. but just seeing that one document out of thousands, tens of thousands, we don t know the number being held back, gave us a little gimplimpse how importa the information is. michael duffey talked about how he received guidance that the foreign aid needs to be withheld from ukraine. and that this is a sensitive request. and so to me that raises a lot of questions. and i think is really suspicious just on its face. another witness who democratic lawmakers would like to get their hands on, get on the stand, is former national security adviser john bolton. ambassador bolton sat down with axios earlier this week bashing the stance on north korea. what do you think? what message does this send?
keeping that information closely held to those who need to know to execute the direction. now, that e-mail was sent by mike duffey, who s one of the four witnesses that minority leader chuck schumer wants to testify. he wants him along with acting chief of staff mick mulvaney and former national security adviser john bolton. now, the white house called the timing a coincidence. but following those revelations senator schumer reiterated why those witnesses need to testify. what happened over the weekend with duffey s e-mails that were made public has only bolstered the case that documents should be produced and witnesses testify if everything was on the up and up. if the call was perfect, as president trump said, why does one of his top aides, who s a political appointee, say let s keep it hush-hush? chuck schumer also argued in favor of a fair trial with
our constitutional norms and damaging the health of american politics. today the democrats case for more witnesses grew stronger this weekend after damning new evidence further linked the hold on ukraine s military aid with donald trump s demand for an investigation into his political rival. newly relatesed e-mails show that 90 minutes, 90 minutes after donald trump asked ukraine s president to do us a favor, though, a senior official in the office of management dp budget e-mailed the pentagon to freeze the aid to ukraine and more importantly keep quiet about it, writing, please hold off on any additional department of defense obligations of these funds pending direction from that process. given the sensitive nature of the request, i appreciate you keeping that information closely held to those who need to know to execute the direction. now, that e-mail was sent by mike duffey, who s one of the four witnesses that minority leader chuck schumer wants to
testify. he wants him along with acting chief of staff mick mulvaney and former national security adviser john bolton. now, the white house called the timing a coincidence. but following those revelations senator schumer reiterated why those witnesses need to testify. what happened over the weekend with duffey s e-mails that were made public has only bolstered the case that documents should be produced and witnesses testify if everything was on the up and up. if the call was perfect, as president trump said, why does one of his top aides, who s a political appointee, say let s keep it hush-hush? chuck schumer also argued in favor of a fair trial with documents and witnesses in a letter to his senate colleagues today, writing, to oppose the admission of this evidence would be to turn a willfully blind eye to the facts and would clearly be at odds with the obligation of senators to do impartial justice according to the oath we will all take in the impeachment trial.
documents, the american people will correctly assume that those blocking their testimony were aiding and abetting a cover-up, plain and simple. so i ll close by saying this. president trump, release the emails. let the witnesses testify. what are you afraid of? for more on this development, jeremy herb is in washington for us. reporter: newly released emails reveal that the white house s order to freeze ukraine aid came roughly 90 minutes after president trump s call with president zelensky on july 25th. the emails provide new detail to our understanding of how exactly the white house held up the aid. in the july 25th email, white house budget official michael duffey ordered the pentagon to hold the aid. duffey wrote given the sensitive nature of the request, i appreciate your keeping that information closely held to