Trump confirms he held back US aid to Ukraine as controversy swells

UNITED NATIONS/WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump confirmed on Tuesday he had withheld nearly $400 million in U.S. aid to Ukraine but denied he did so as leverage to get its president to initiate an investigation that would damage Democratic political rival Joe Biden.

In remarks to reporters at the United Nations over the intensifying political controversy, Trump sought to portray that there was nothing sinister about the withholding the aid, saying he wanted Europe and not just the United States step up and provide Ukraine assistance. The money was later released by the Trump administration.

“There was never any quid pro quo,” Trump told reporters at the United Nations, using a Latin phrase meaning a favor that is exchanged for a favor. In Washington, House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, was to meet later on Tuesday with Democratic lawmakers to consider impeaching the Republican president as more lawmakers voiced support for the action.

Arriving at the United Nations before his speech to the annual General Assembly, Trump confirmed that he had wanted the money for Ukraine frozen, saying European should countries provide assistance to Kiev, but changed his mind after “people called me.”

However, Trump told reporters that he still felt other nations should be paying to help Ukraine. “The money was paid, but very importantly, Germany, France, other countries should put up money,” Trump said.

Regarding aid to Ukraine, Trump said, “We’re putting up the bulk of the money, and I’m asking why is that? ... What I want, and I insist on it, is that Europe has to put up money for Ukraine also.”

Trump on Tuesday indicated that he expects a “readout” of the phone call with Ukraine’s president to be made public. “And when you see the call, when you see the readout of the call, which I assume you’ll see at some point, you’ll understand. That call was perfect. It couldn’t have been nicer,” Trump told reporters.

Senator Bob Menendez, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Congress had not been made aware of any substantive review of security assistance to Ukraine or any policy reason the funds should have been withheld. In a letter to Mike Mulvaney, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Menendez said “it is becoming clear that” Trump put pressure on Ukrainian officials.

Menendez, in one of three letters sent to administration officials, also said “we must immediately understand whether, and to what extent, the President and his team converted duly-appropriated United States foreign assistance funds for his personal and political benefit, and what role federal agencies may have played in it.”

Under the U.S. Constitution, the House has the power to impeach a president for “high crimes and misdemeanors” and the Senate then holds a trial on whether to remove the president from office. No president has ever been removed from office through impeachment. A House committee has already launched a formal impeachment probe of Trump in light of his actions in the Russia matter but the impeachment drive never won the support of key party figures including Pelosi.