Michael P. Duffey

The Wall Street Journal reported that Michael Duffey, a politically appointed Office of Management and Budget official, was given authority by the White House to keep aid to Ukraine on hold after career budget staff members questioned the legality of delaying the funds.

Duffey previously served as executive director of the Republican Party of Wisconsin but left the state GOP in December 2016 to join the Trump administration. Until 2015, Duffey worked in the office of the deputy assistant director of the Secretary of Defense for data analysis and systems engineering. He is also the former Defense Department liaison to the White House for President George W. Bush.

"While career civil servants put an initial hold on the aid, Michael Duffey, associate director of national security programs in OMB, was given the authority for continuing to keep the aid on hold after the career staff began raising their concerns to political officials at OMB, according to people familiar with the matter," the newspaper reported.

Duffey did not appear for his scheduled testimony in the House impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump.

Michael Duffey, a politically appointed Office of Management and Budget official, was a no-show despite a subpoena to testify before House members looking into whether Trump withheld nearly $400 million in military aid to Ukraine as leverage to get it to open an investigation into his opponent, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.

It was not a surprise that Duffey didn't show up.

Russell Vought, the acting director of the OMB, previously tweeted that neither he nor Duffey would cooperate with the House impeachment inquiry.

"OMB officials — myself and Mike Duffey — will not be complying with deposition requests," Vought wrote late last month.

The subpoenas reportedly included a warning that their failure to appear would constitute evidence of obstruction of the House’s impeachment inquiry.

Trump's order to withhold nearly $400 million in aid to Ukraine in July is at the heart of House Democrats' move to launch an impeachment inquiry into allegations that Trump used U.S. foreign policy powers to benefit himself politically.

https://www.usglc.org/positions/white-house-associate-director-for-...