In Less than Two Hours After His Call, Trump was Cutting off the Funds

   Less that two hours after President Trump's phone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the following order was issued by Mike Duffey, the White House official in the Office of Management and Budget:
  "Based on guidance I have received and in light of the Administration's plan to review assistance to Ukraine, including the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, please hold off on any additional DoD obligations of these funds, pending direction from that process."
   Further, the email said: "Given the sensitive nature of the request, I appreciate your keeping that information closely held to those who need to know to execute direction."
  The email just came to light -- after the impeachment -- as a result of an FOIA request from the Center for Public Integrity, which published its piece Friday.
  This does not discount that a hold on the funds was not already in place. In fact, that a hold on funds was already in place makes it all the more intriguing that about within hours of the call between the two presidents, the White House doubled down on the hold.
  An honest trial in the Senate will allow this email to be read and entered in the record and used as evidence. If the trial is to be honest, fair, and in search of justice, Duffey will be called in to testify on both the email, itself, and on all other knowledge he has of whether there was a tie between the president's asking for an investigation concerning a political opponent and the release of money for military aid.
   Honesty is not always a providence of our leaders, whether that means our senators or the president, himself. How the senators treats this piece of evidence is yet to be seen. And, President Trump? He did not release this in the name of being honest and open, but rather specifically asked that it not be released.
   How big of news is this story? To me, it is explosive and should be the lead in papers across the country. Will pick up my paper tomorrow morning and see. I did not see a direct piece in the list of major stories when I looked for it on MSN today.
   Why? We speak of the news being biased. I don't know that I agree. But, I wonder if that accusation is prompting them to retract from overly playing articles that might be damaging to the president. The press is being intimidated, and the president is reaping benefits from that intimidation.