Mick Mulvaney walks back quid pro quo comments
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump's acting chief of staff acknowledged Thursday that aid to Ukraine at the center of a House impeachment inquiry was withheld because of the president's desire for the country to probe U.S. domestic politics.
Among those claims: Trump sought Ukraine's help in finding out whether a hacked Democratic National Committee server and 33,000 emails from Democrat Hillary Clinton's tenure running the U.S. State Department"could be" in the country. Speaking to reporters as he traveled in Texas, Trump said he did not watch Mulvaney’s briefing but heard he did well.–House Democrats launched an impeachment inquiry last month over a phone call in July between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. A summary of the call released by the White House showed Trump raised the issue of interference in the 2016 election as well as former Vice President Biden soon after discussing aid to Kyiv.
Trump has repeatedly asserted that he did not withhold the money in exchange for Ukraine's help in looking into political foes, and Mulvaney said, "The money held up had absolutely nothing to do with Biden." Mulvaney framed the issue as Trump calling on Ukraine to help Attorney General William Barr with an investigation into 2016 election interference.
Trump sought Ukraine's help in finding out whether a hacked Democratic National Committee server and 33,000 emails from Democrat Hillary Clinton's tenure running the U.S. State Department"could be" in the country. The president's phone call with Zelensky prompted a flurry of subpoenas sent to the Trump administration. Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, told lawmakers Thursday that withholding aid for political reasons would be wrong.
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