Trump confirms he withheld military aid from Ukraine, says he wants other countries to help pay


Trump confirms he withheld military aid from Ukraine, says he wants other countries to help pay

President Trump confirmed Tuesday that he withheld military aid from Ukraine, saying he did so over his concerns that the United States was contributing more to Ukraine than European countries were.

“My complaint has always been, and I’d withhold again and I’ll continue to withhold until such time as Europe and other nations contribute to Ukraine because they’re not doing it,” Trump told reporters at the United Nations General Assembly.

Trump was responding to reporting by The Washington Post that Trump told his acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney to hold back almost $400 million in military aid for at least a week before Trump spoke to the Ukrainian president.

On that call, Trump allegedly asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Hunter Biden, the son of former vice president and possible 2020 opponent, Joe Biden, according to an intelligence official whistleblower who reported the call to the intelligence agency inspector general. The Trump administration has blocked Congress from seeing the complaint.

Trump has suggested he did bring up Biden during the call, but has dismissed allegations of anything untoward. He told reporters there would likely be a readout of the call released.

“It’s nonsense,” Trump said. “When you see the call, when you see the readout of the call, which I assume you’ll see at some point, that call was perfect, it couldn’t have been nicer.”

Trump repeated his contention that Biden is the one who should be investigated. The president and his allies have accused Biden of pressuring Ukraine in 2016 to fire its top prosecutor, Viktor Shokin to benefit his son.

Hunter Biden served for nearly five years on the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian natural gas company, whose owner came under scrutiny by Ukrainian prosecutors for possible abuse of power and unlawful enrichment. Hunter Biden was not accused of any wrongdoing in the investigation. At the time that then-vice president Joe Biden sought the ouster of the top Ukrainian prosecutor, who Biden and other Western officials said was not sufficiently pursuing corruption cases, the investigation into Burisma was dormant, according to former Ukrainian and U.S. officials.

Trump’s discussing a political opponent with a foreign leader has renewed calls for his impeachment among House Democrats. Trump said Tuesday that the impeachment discussion is “ridiculous” and, as he did with the investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, called it a “witch hunt.”

“I’m leading in the polls. They have no idea how they stop me,” Trump said. “The only way they can try is through impeachment.”

Nearly every poll has Biden defeating Trump nationwide and in battleground states.

John Wagner contributed to this story.


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