President Trump explained in a series of tweets Tuesday his rationale for temporarily withholding $391 million in U.S. military aid from Ukraine and preventing some Trump administration officials from testifying amid court orders that they do so.
“The D.C. Wolves and Fake News Media are reading far too much into people being forced by Courts to testify before Congress,” Trump in a series of posts Tuesday. “I am fighting for future Presidents and the Office of the President. Other than that, I would actually like people to testify.”
The president then highlighted a few key figures who he said would back up his handling of the Ukraine aid situation.
“Don McGahn’s respected lawyer has already stated that I did nothing wrong,” he wrote “John Bolton is a patriot and may know that I held back the money from Ukraine because it is considered a corrupt country, [and] I wanted to know why nearby European countries weren’t putting up money also.”
“Likewise, I would love to have Mike Pompeo, Rick Perry, Mick Mulvaney and many others testify about the phony Impeachment Hoax,” Trump continued. “It is a Democrat Scam that is going nowhere but, future Presidents should in no way be compromised. What has happened to me should never happen to another President!”
The D.C. Wolves and Fake News Media are reading far too much into people being forced by Courts to testify before Congress. I am fighting for future Presidents and the Office of the President. Other than that, I would actually like people to testify. Don McGahn’s respected….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 26, 2019
…love to have Mike Pompeo, Rick Perry, Mick Mulvaney and many others testify about the phony Impeachment Hoax. It is a Democrat Scam that is going nowhere but, future Presidents should in no way be compromised. What has happened to me should never happen to another President!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 26, 2019
The Democrats are accusing Trump of “bribery” in an attempt to “pressure” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate alleged corruption involving the Ukraine-based energy company Burisma Holdings and former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden.
Allegations of wrongdoing on the Bidens’ part have been swirling for years after Hunter landed a lucrative position on the board of Burisma despite having no direct experience to warrant the role other than his father’s newly appointed role of overseeing U.S.-Ukraine relations. The former vice president famously bragged to the Council on Foreign Relations in January 2018 about getting Ukraine’s top prosecutor, who had been looking into Burisma for alleged corruption, fired by threatening to do exactly what the Democrats are accusing Trump of doing: withholding U.S. money.
BIDEN: I’m desperately concerned about the backsliding on the part of Kiev in terms of corruption … [I]t just happened to be [Ukraine] was the assignment I got. I got all the good ones. And so I got Ukraine. And I remember going over, convincing our team, our leaders to — convincing that we should be providing for loan guarantees. And I went over, I guess, the 12th, 13th time to Kiev. And I was supposed to announce that there was another billion-dollar loan guarantee. And I had gotten a commitment from Poroshenko and from Yatsenyuk that they would take action against the state prosecutor. And they didn’t. So they said they had — they were walking out to a press conference. I said, nah, I’m not going to — or, we’re not going to give you the billion dollars. They said, you have no authority. You’re not the president. The president said — I said, call him. I said, I’m telling you, you’re not getting the billion dollars. I said, you’re not getting the billion. I’m going to be leaving here in, I think it was about six hours. I looked at them and said: I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money. Well, son of a b*tch. He got fired. And they put in place someone who was solid at the time.
During their famous July 25 call, Trump asked Zelensky to “look into” allegations of corruption involving the Bidens. “There’s a lot of talk about Biden’s son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that,” Trump told Zelensky. “So whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it … It sounds horrible to me.”
The Democrats say that Trump was imposing a quid pro quo in the call, but Trump and his defenders say the transcript shows nothing of the sort and point to Zelensky’s repeated public assertions that there was no such pressure applied to him by the U.S.
Related: WATCH: Texas Republican: Here’s How Many Times Impeachment Witnesses Have Even Mentioned ‘Bribery’