Though President Trump has said that he freed monetary aid for Ukraine on Sept. 11, Bloomberg reports that the State Department actually authorized the $141 million payment several days earlier. The decision by the State Department came from a legal finding conveyed in a classified memorandum that was sent to Secretary of State Michael Pompeo, which reportedly found that the president had no legal standing to block the Ukraine aid, according to Bloomberg’s five sources. Witnesses have told Congress that Trump ordered the money halted in order to force Ukraine’s president to publicly announce he was probing former Vice President Joe Biden’s son. That allegation has formed the basis of the ongoing impeachment inquiry.
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