Vice President Mike Pence said President Trump did not ask him to pressure the president of Ukraine into investigating the Bidens ahead of a meeting last year.
Pence’s aides have repeatedly said he was unaware of any efforts to press Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for information about the role Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden played while he was on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma.
But, with scrutiny growing of who knew what and with revelations from a draft of John Bolton’s memoir undermining the White House defense that there was no link between aid and an investigation, the vice president’s office took the highly unusual step of commenting on conversations with the president, a conversation that occurred ahead of a meeting in Poland last year.
His chief of staff Marc Short said: “In every conversation with the president and the vice president in preparation for our trip to Poland, the president consistently expressed his frustration that the United States was bearing the lion’s share of responsibility for aid to Ukraine and that European nations weren’t doing their part. The president also expressed concerns about corruption in Ukraine.
“At no time did I hear him tie aid to Ukraine to investigations into the Biden family or Burisma,” Short said.
Trump’s impeachment trial centers on whether he abused his power in withholding aid to Ukraine at the same time he was urging investigators to investigate Burisma.
Pence was dragged into the controversy by Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas. He claimed Pence was tasked to go to Poland to meet with Zelensky in September to demand Ukraine investigate the Bidens.
Aides have repeatedly denied the allegations, and Short insisted that corruption and the U.S.’s unfair burden were the only factors raised in talks.
He added: “As White House counsel presented today, based upon testimony provided by Democrat witnesses in the House hearings, these were the only issues that the vice president discussed with Ukrainian officials — because that’s what the president asked him to raise.”
