What President Trump Mentioned“By the best way, by way of the cash, it obtained there two or three weeks forward of schedule, lengthy earlier than
What President Trump Mentioned
“By the best way, by way of the cash, it obtained there two or three weeks forward of schedule, lengthy earlier than it was imagined to be there.”
False. President Trump was incorrect in asserting that his choice final yr to droop army help to Ukraine — a key element in his impeachment and upcoming trial — didn’t intrude with the schedule for delivering the help.
The 2019 federal fiscal yr ended on Sept. 30, the date by which all appropriated support to Ukraine was imagined to be disbursed. However due to the freeze ordered by Mr. Trump, not all the support was spent earlier than the deadline.
Congress had appropriated $391 million in army help to Ukraine — $250 million from the Pentagon and $141 million from the State Division — meant to be spent by the tip of September. Although the Pentagon announced its plans to offer the help in June, White Home officers blocked its launch in July. It remained frozen till mid-September, when Mr. Trump relented after strain from lawmakers and administration officers.
With simply two weeks left within the fiscal yr, the Pentagon was unable to totally disburse the funds. In response to testimony from Mark Sandy, an official within the Workplace of Administration and Price range, about $35 million was left unspent. Congress then extended the deadline to the 2020 fiscal yr to permit for the disbursement of the remaining support.
“Had that provision not been included, then any unobligated funds as of Sept. 30 would have expired,” Mr. Sandy stated.
What Mr. Trump Mentioned
“We’ve got 1000’s of ISIS prisoners that we’re holding proper now underneath lock and key. And we wish Europe to take many of those prisoners as a result of they got here from Germany, France and different locations — most likely a number of from Greece, in all equity.”
That is exaggerated. Estimates from Mr. Trump’s personal administration present that he’s overstating the share of Islamic State fighters who hail from Europe.
James F. Jeffrey, the State Division’s particular envoy for Syria, said in August that about 8,000 ISIS fighters from Syria and Iraq and one other 2,000 international fighters have been being detained by the Syrian Democratic Forces, the unfastened coalition of militias combating the terrorist group.
Of these international fighters, about 800 are European and the remainder are from former Soviet republics, the Center East, North Africa and Asia, in response to a Pentagon inspector general report from August. The report and other analysts have famous that a lot of these locations are hesitant to repatriate their residents, fearing political backlash or hurdles in prosecution.
As for Mr. Trump’s rivalry {that a} “few” ISIS fighters are Greek nationals, the nonprofit Counter Extremism Mission concluded that the quantity was “not well documented” however stated that Greece had been used as a transit level for fighters of European origin. A July report from the London-based Worldwide Heart for the Examine of Radicalization estimated that girls and kids affiliated with the Islamic State numbered about 6,600 from Western Europe however none from Greece.
Mr. Trump beforehand acquired pushback from the French president, Emmanuel Macron, when he told Mr. Macron in December that “many” fighters come from France.
“Let’s be critical,” Mr. Macron stated precisely. “The very massive numbers of fighters on the bottom are the fighters coming from Syria, from Iraq.”
Different claims
Mr. Trump additionally revived claims that The New York Instances has beforehand fact-checked, together with his usually repeated falsehood that he opposed the Iraq battle “within the first place” (he did not) and his exaggerated rivalry that European international locations aren’t contributing help to Ukraine (they do).
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