trial in the normal criminal courts. that is the tough part of this i think for many members of congress because there s frankly a political danger here. if we vote articles of impeachment in the house and then the senate doesn t accept them, then there s a danger that we will have established the de facto precedent, that it is okay to do this as long as you can intimidate 51 members of the senate into ignoring the problem. let me just bring you up to speed on more breaking news we have on this story. the washington post is now reporting trump ordered a hold on military aid days before calling ukrainian president. this is according to officials. this is just being reported by the washington post. it says that congresswoman dingell, it says president trump told his acting chief of staff
conclusions as to what that means. but that is another layer of this story that is interesting, that it s not just that it was delayed. it s that there was some sort of message crafted for lawmakers who might wonder why this aid to an ally, particularly an ally that is fighting off russian expansionism, was delayed. they would have legitimate questions about that and it seems not only was the money delayed but there was a response crafted that might have been less than truthful. well, we don t know what the truth is yet. we don t know the full truth yet. we ve had some administration officials, senior ones, tonight
learning day by day more information about the nature of the president s interest in ukraine and his personal effort to reach down into state and department of defense funding and hold it back from the ukraine while he was, you know, days away from talking to the president and according to our sources pressuring the ukrainian president to investigate biden s son. you know, i read to my audience the key paragraph in this story a couple of times, but i want to go a couple paragraphs lower where it says administration officials were instructed to tell lawmakers that the delays were part of a interagency process but to give them no additional information, a pattern that continued for nearly two months until the white house released the funds on the night of september 11th, 2019. now, carol, this is reporting. so you re not drawing
impeachment in the house and then the senate doesn t accept them, then there s a danger that we will have established the de facto precedent, that it is okay to do this as long as you can intimidate 51 members of the senate into ignoring the problem. let me just bring you up to speed on more breaking news we have on this story. the washington post is now reporting trump ordered a hold on military aid days before calling ukrainian president. this is according to officials. this is just being reported by the washington post. it says that congresswoman ding dingdale, it says president trump told his acting chief of staff mick mulvaney to hold back nearly $400 million to ukraine at least a week before a phone call in which trump is said to have pressured the ukrainian president to investigate the son of former vice president joe biden according to three senior administration officials.
you were referring moments ago to new reporting in the washington post that donald trump has had ordered a hold on military aid about a week before this phone call with the president of the ukraine, of ukraine. president trump told his i m reading from the washington post. told his acting chief of staff mick mulvaney to hold back almost $400 million in military aid for ukraine at least a week before a phone call in which trump is said to have pressured the ukrainian president to investigate the son of former vice president joe biden according to three senior administration officials. not only have we taken a position in ukraine to help them fend off the expansionist tendencies of russia but they re not in a position to say no to a request made by the president of the united states. no, i get it. and president trump is like every dumb criminal defendant i ve ever prosecuted. they all think if it s not in writing they can t prove anything. that s not true. circumstantial evid