Trump administration broke law by withholding millions in security aid to Ukraine, US government auditor says

'Faithful execution of the law does not permit the president to substitute his own policy priorities for those that Congress has enacted into law'

Trump has spent his presidency promising multiple 'deals of the century' (REUTERS)

The Trump administration violated the law by withholding $391 million in military assistance to Ukraine, the US government's independent auditor has said.

Government Accountability Office general counsel Thomas Armstrong laid out the agency's conclusion that the president and his budget officials violated the law by withholding $391 million in security assistance to Ukraine in a decision memorandum released on Thursday. Although it is technically considered part of the legislative branch, the GAO headed by the Comptroller General of the United States, who is nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate to a 15-year, non-renewable term. The agency was established as the General Accounting Office in 1922, and is widely respected for its independence and record of ensuring proper use of taxpayer funds.

"Faithful execution of the law does not permit the president to substitute his own policy priorities for those that Congress has enacted into law," Mr Armstrong wrote.

Specifically, Mr Armstrong concluded that top officials with White House Office of Management and Budget had violated a 1974 law prohibiting the executive branch from not spending money Congress had appropriated, because OMB officials had withheld the funds for an impermissible "policy reason".

That law, known the Impoundment Control Act, was enacted in response to then-president Richard Nixon's refusal to spend funds appropriated by the legislative branch. It allows the president to specifically request that Congress rescind a particular appropriation if he or she does not want to spend those funds, but it requires that the funds be spent as appropriated if Congress takes no action within 45 days.

The White House's failure to abide by the Impoundment Control Act was noted by Defence Department comptroller Elaine McCusker in a series of emails, in which Ms McCusker repeatedly informed OMB associate director of national security programmes Michael Duffey that continuing to withhold funds meant for the Pentagon's Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative would require a "recission notice" from the president to Congress.

The emails revealed that Mr Duffey told Ms McCusker that the decision to place a hold on the Ukraine funds came as a "clear direction" from president Donald Trump.

Mr Duffey first directed Pentagon officials to begin withholding the funds just hours after the president's 25 July phone call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, in which Mr Trump responded to his Ukrainian counterpart's request to purchase Javelin anti-tank missiles with his own request for "a favour" consisting of investigations into former vice president Joe Biden and a debunked conspiracy which alleges that Ukraine -- not Russia -- interfered in the 2016 election.

While the president and his allies have argued that Mr Trump's decision to withhold the funds was a proper use of his constitutional authority to conduct foreign policy, Mr Armstrong flatly rejected such a defence.

"An appropriations act is a law like any other; therefore, unless Congress has enacted a law providing otherwise, the President must take care to ensure that appropriations are prudently obligated during their period of availability," he wrote, adding later that the US constitution "grants the President no unilateral authority to withhold funds from obligation".

The senator who initially requested the GAO's investigation, Maryland Democrat Chris Van Hollen, said in a statement that the agency's "bombshell legal opinion...demonstrates, without a doubt, that the Trump Administration illegally withheld security assistance from Ukraine".

"This violation of the law reflects a contempt for the Constitution and was a key part of his corrupt scheme to abuse the power of the presidency for his personal political purposes. The GAO's independent findings reinforce the need for the Senate to obtain all relevant documents and hear from key fact witnesses in order to have a fair trial," he said.

Mr Trump's attempt to withhold security assistance to Ukraine in order to strong-arm Mr Zelensky into announcing investigations into his political rival is at the centre of the abuse of power allegations for which the US House of Representatives voted to impeach him on 18 December, making him just the third American president to face a trial before the US Senate with the possibility of being removed from office.

While the articles of impeachment against Mr Trump were approved last month, they only reached the Senate on Wednesday after House speaker Nancy Pelosi ended a month-long delay meant to put pressure on Senate Republicans to allow witnesses at Mr Trump's trial, which is set to begin Tuesday.