President Trump denied an administration official’s claim in August that he used military funding to secure Ukraine’s cooperation in certain investigations.
Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin called Trump in August concerned that the administration had linked aid to Ukraine with promises to initiate investigations that Trump sought, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday. Johnson’s concerns were based off a conversation he had with U.S. ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland.
Johnson said Trump was concerned about corruption in the country and frustrated that other countries in Europe were not doing more to combat Russian attempts to destabilize Ukraine.
“I was concerned that we weren’t agreeing to provide the funding, but when I talked to [Trump], he gave me the same rationale: Corruption and why isn’t Europe stepping up to the plate and doing more; why do we have to do this? They (Ukraine) are not in our backyard,” Johnson previously told the Washington Examiner about their conversation.
“But at the end of the call, he said, ‘Ron, I think you’ll be happy with my decision,'” Johnson said. “He had to kind of go through that process. Put yourself in the president’s position and what he had to go through the last two and a half years. He’d like to get to the bottom of it.”
