This archive report was first published on 18 October 2019.
On October 17, 2019, Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, made a series of remarks to reporters that would spark a new controversy in the ongoing Ukraine scandal. According to Mulvaney, the Trump administration withheld aid to Ukraine due to three main reasons: corruption in Ukraine, frustration with European governments not providing enough financial support to Ukraine, and President Trump's demand that Ukraine investigate the Democratic National Committee server.
When asked if Trump had mentioned the corruption related to the D.N.C. server, Mulvaney replied, 'Absolutely. No question about that.' He added, 'That's why we held up the money.'
However, Mulvaney's comments were quickly met with ridicule from Democrats, who accused him of lying. Representative Ted Lieu, a California Democrat, stated, 'Mick Mulvaney was either lying then, or he's lying now. I think he's lying now.'
The White House was also quick to distance itself from Mulvaney's comments, with Jay Sekulow, one of Trump's personal lawyers, stating, 'The president's legal counsel was not involved in acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney's press briefing.'
Meanwhile, Gordon D. Sondland, the president's ambassador to the European Union, testified behind closed doors on Capitol Hill, implicating Trump in the Ukraine scandal by stating that Trump had delegated Ukraine policy to his personal lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani.
