Trump confirms he withheld military aid from Ukraine but says it was because he wants other countries to pay their fair share

Reuters

U.S. President Donald Trump arrives for the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York City, New York, U.S.

• President Donald Trump on Tuesday seemed to confirm reports he moved to hold back military aid from Ukraine a week ahead of a call with its new president that's now at the center of a whistleblower scandal.
• Trump has acknowledged that on the call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky he discussed investigating former Vice President Joe Biden and his son.
• But he's rejected the notion he dangled military aid over Ukraine to urge it toward investigating Biden, a top political opponent.
• As Trump was questioned about this by reporters in New York City on Tuesday, he said his main concern is that other countries are not paying their fair share when it comes to aiding Ukraine.
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President Donald Trump on Tuesday appeared to confirm that he decided to withhold military aid from Ukraine a roughly week before a July phone call with its recently elected president, Volodymyr Zelensky, which is now at the center at an escalating scandal linked to a whistleblower complaint from a member of the US intelligence community.

A Washington Post report from Monday night said Trump told his acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, to put the brakes on approximately $400 million in military aid for Ukraine at least a week before the call.

Trump on Sunday confirmed he discussed investigating former Vice President Joe Biden and his son during the call with Zelensky. But he's rejected the notion he dangled military aid over Ukraine to urge it toward investigating Biden, a top political opponent.

As Trump was questioned about this by reporters in New York City on Tuesday, he said his main concern is that other countries are not paying their fair share when it comes to aiding Ukraine.

"I want other countries to put up money. I think it's unfair we put up the money. Then people called me and said let it go. I let it go," Trump said. "We paid the money. The money was paid. But very importantly Germany, France, other countries should put up money and that's been my complaint from the beginning."

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that during the phone call, Trump pressed Zelensky at least eight times to work with Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and Biden's son Hunter over their dealings in Ukraine.

The younger Biden sat on the board of Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian gas-extraction company, from 2014 to early this year. Trump and Giuliani accused the elder Biden of trying to stymie a criminal investigation into Burisma in 2016 by pushing the Ukrainian government to fire Viktor Shokin, the prosecutor general leading the inquiry.

While Biden did seek the prosecutor's removal, those accusations are unsubstantiated, with government officials and Ukrainian anticorruption advocates in fact saying that Shokin had hampered the investigation into Burisma long before Biden had entered the picture, according to The Journal.

Trump denied suggestions that he told the Ukrainians that the military funds were conditioned upon investigating Biden. But he appeared to acknowledge on Monday that the aid package was at least somewhat on his mind during the call with Zelensky.

"It's very important to talk about corruption," Trump said. "If you don't talk about corruption, why would you give money to a country that you think is corrupt? It's very important that on occasion, you speak to somebody about corruption."

This article will continue to be updated.