A senior White House official has acknowledged that President Donald Trump held up $US391 million ($A573 million) in military aid to Ukraine in part to pressure the Ukrainians to look into an allegation about the 2016 US presidential election that has been debunked as a conspiracy theory.
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Trump and administration officials had denied for weeks that it had demanded a "quid pro quo" - a Latin phrase meaning a favour for a favour - for delivering the US aid, a key part of a controversy that has triggered an impeachment inquiry in the House of Representatives against the Republican president.
But Mick Mulvaney, acting White House chief of staff, acknowledged in a briefing with reporters that the US aid was held up partly over Trump's concerns about a Democratic National Committee (DNC) computer server alleged to be in Ukraine.
In a July 25 call, Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for "a favour" to look into the server and another matter relating to the 2016 election.
Trump also asked Zelenskiy to investigate a domestic political opponent, Joe Biden, and Biden's son Hunter Biden, who had served as a director for a Ukrainian energy company. Zelenskiy agreed during the call to carry out the investigation Trump sought. The US aid later was provided to Ukraine.
The DNC server issue is a debunked conspiracy theory that Ukraine and not Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. election and that a Democratic Party computer server was being held somewhere in Ukraine..
"Did he also mention to me in the past, the corruption related to the DNC server? Absolutely. No question," Mulvaney said, referring to Trump.
"But that's it. That's why we held up the money."
Mulvaney's comments came after the US ambassador to the European Union said in written testimony in the impeachment inquiry that Trump told senior US officials to talk directly to his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, about US policy in Ukraine, raising concern that the president was outsourcing American foreign policy to a private citizen.
The envoy, Gordon Sondland, told lawmakers in the Democratic-led inquiry that he did not understand "until much later" that Giuliani's agenda included a push for Ukraine to investigate Biden.
Sondland, a Republican Trump political donor and a wealthy Oregon hotelier before being named by the president to his EU post last year, also said that "inviting a foreign government to undertake investigations for the purpose of influencing an upcoming US election would be wrong."
"Please know that I would not have recommended that Mr. Giuliani or any private citizen be involved in these foreign policy matters," Sondland said, but added that given Trump's "explicit direction" that "we agreed to do as President Trump directed."
His testimony was the clearest sign yet that Trump's efforts to erect a firewall around the White House and frustrate the Democratic-led inquiry's efforts to interview administration officials are proving unsuccessful.
The impeachment inquiry could lead to the House passing formal charges - known as articles of impeachment - which would prompt a trial in the Senate on whether to remove Trump from office. The Senate is controlled by Trump's fellow Republicans, who have shown little inclination toward removing him.
Giuliani did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sondland's testimony.
Australian Associated Press