The administration put nearly $400 million for Ukraine on hold before his July 25 call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky. Zelensky was unaware of the hold, and Trump didn’t bring it up when he asked Zelensky for "a favor." That favor was for Ukraine to seek the hacked Democratic National Committee server, and look into the business dealings of Hunter Biden, son of presidential candidate Joe Biden.
Mulvaney explained why the money was withheld.
Mulvaney: "(Trump’s) like, 'Look, this is a corrupt place. I don’t want to send them a bunch of money and have them waste it, have them spend it, have them use it to line their own pockets. Plus, I’m not sure that the other European countries are helping them out either.’
Q: "But to be clear, what you just described is a quid pro quo. It is: Funding will not flow unless the investigation into the Democratic server happens as well."
Mulvaney: "We do that all the time with foreign policy. We were holding money at the same time for — what was it? The Northern Triangle countries. We were holding up aid at the Northern Triangle countries so that they would change their policies on immigration."
Mulvaney then reacted to testimony from former top State Department aide Michael McKinley, who had just resigned and then testified before the House impeachment inquiry committees.
Mulvaney: "McKinley said yesterday that he was really upset with the political influence in foreign policy. That was one of the reasons he was so upset about this. And I have news for everybody: Get over it. There’s going to be political influence in foreign policy."
On the Justice Department’s investigation of the origins of the FBI’s probe of Russian interference
Q: "Just to clarify, and just to follow up on that question: So, when you’re saying that politics is going to be involved, the question here is not just about political decisions about how you want to run the government. This is about investigating political opponents. Are you saying that —"
Mulvaney: "No. The DNC — the DNC server —"
Q: "Are you saying that it’s okay for the U.S. government to hold up aid and require a foreign government to investigate political opponents of the president?"
Mulvaney: "Now, you’re talking about looking forward to the next election. We’re talking —"
Q: "Even the DNC. The DNC is still involved in this next election. Is that not correct?"
Mulvaney: "So, wait a second. So there’s —"
Q: "So are you saying —"
Mulvaney: "Hold on a second. No, let me ask you —"
Q: "But you’re asking to investigate the DNC, right?"
Mulvaney: "So, let’s look at this —
Q: "Is the DNC political opponents of the president?"
Mulvaney: "There’s an ongoing — there’s an ongoing investigation by our Department of Justice into the 2016 election. I can’t remember that person’s name."
Q: "Durham."
Mulvaney: "Durham. Durham, okay? That’s an ongoing investigation, right? So you’re saying the President of the United States, the chief law enforcement person, cannot ask somebody to cooperate with an ongoing public investigation into wrongdoing? That’s just bizarre to me that you would think that you can’t do that."
Q: "And so you would say that it’s fine to ask about the DNC but not about Biden? So, Biden is now — Biden is running for the Democratic nomination, right?"
Mulvaney: "Yeah."
Q: "That’s for 2020. So are you drawing that distinction?"
Mulvaney: "That’s a hypothetical because that did not happen here."
Q: "No, no, but — the President —"
Mulvaney: But I would ask you —
Q: "No, no. On the call, the president did ask about investigating the Bidens. Are you saying that the money that was held up, that that had nothing to do with the Bidens?"
Mulvaney: "No, the money held up had absolutely nothing to do with Biden. There’s no question. And that was the point I made to you."
