Sen. Johnson says in interview that a U.S. diplomat told him in August that the Trump admin. had frozen almost $400M in aid to Ukraine because the president wanted a commitment that Kyiv would carry out investigations related to U.S. elections.
"He was very consistent on why he was considering it. It was corruption overall generalized, but yeah, no doubt about it, what happened in 2016, what happened in 2016, what was the truth about that, and then the fact that our NATO partners don’t step up to the plate,” Johnson said.
"Senator Johnson does not recall in any meeting or discussion with the president, or any member of the administration, that the term 'quid pro quo' was ever used. Nor does he recall any discussion of any specific case of corruption in the 2016 election, such as , during general discussions of corruption, which is endemic throughout Ukraine," the statement said.
The senator said the suggestion made him"wince.""My reaction was: 'Oh, God. I don’t want to see those two things combined,'" Johnson told the paper.
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