OMB didn't have the guts to rely on this argument in real time. As @neal_katyal & I have explained, OMB told DOD to hide from Congress the hold on Ukraine aid. If OMB believed its own theory, it would've told DOD, then Congress

2nd, OMB didn't have the guts to rely on this argument after the fact. Months later, when OMB issue a post hoc justification for the hold on Ukraine aid, this argument is nowhere to be found. OMB instead relied on a different (also unavailing) argument. /3 https://t.co/SVteJQYeQX

— Joshua A. Geltzer (@jgeltzer) December 30, 2019

What this all adds up to is a legal argument that doesn't just look absurd now that @EricLiptonNYT @maggieNYT & @MarkMazzettiNYT have uncovered it.

It's a legal argument that was absurd for OMB to be pushing at the time--and OMB itself knew it then, just as it knows it now. /END

— Joshua A. Geltzer (@jgeltzer) December 30, 2019