President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday blasted reports that the White House withheld aid from Ukraine while Trump pressured the country to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son.
The Washington Post reported on Monday night that the Trump administration put $400 million in military aid to Ukraine on hold about week before his phone call with the Ukrainian president, in which Trump reportedly pressured him to investigate Biden and his son, Hunter, over their business dealings in the country.
Fox News reports that multiple sources within the administration confirm that the Office of Management and Budget did freeze the aid in July, but said that the hold was over concerns about corruption and what then-incoming president Volodymyr Zelensky was going to do to end it.
“The media pushed the Russia lie for almost three years with no evidence, and now they are doing it all over again,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley told Fox News. “These allegations are completely false, but because the media wants this story to be true so badly, they’ll once again manufacture a frenzy and drive ignorant, fake stories to attack this President.”
Trump denied that the money was connected to investigating Biden in remarks to reporters while at the United Nations on Monday.
“No, I didn’t — I didn’t do it,” Trump said, adding that what Biden did in Ukraine was a “disgrace.” He also said, “It’s very important to talk about corruption…Why would you give money to a country that you think is corrupt?”