WASHINGTON (SPECTRUM NEWS) — Sen. Ron Johnson’s, R-Wisconsin involvement in this impeachment inquiry deepened on Wednesday after EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland not only mentioned the senator throughout his public testimony before Congress but also claimed Johnson was aware of concerns of quid pro quo by the president.

“I shared concerns of the potential quid pro quo regarding the security aid with Sen. Ron Johnson,” said Sondland during the hearing.

It’s a slightly different picture from the one Johnson painted in a letter to the House Intel Committee this week.

He wrote while his memory of the conversation with Sondland is fuzzy, he recalls the ambassador only vaguely mentioning an “arrangement,” and doesn’t remember the words “quid pro quo” being used.

“The most salient point of the call involved Sondland describing an arrangement where, if Ukraine did something to demonstrate its serious intention to fight corruption and possibly help determine what involvement operatives in Ukraine might have had during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, then Trump would release the hold on military aid,” Johnson wrote in the letter.

Sondland corroborated Johnson’s claims that he confronted the president after their conversation. 

“Sen. Johnson, I believe, said ‘I’m going to call Pres. Trump and find out.’ He obviously had that phone call. I wasn’t involved in that phone call,” said Sondland during the hearing.

Johnson wrote in his letter he reached out to Trump to let him know about his upcoming trip to Ukraine and to try to persuade him to let him tell Ukraine Pres. Volodymyr Zelensky that aid is on the way.

Johnson claims the president blocked him but not because of “an arrangement.”

“He reminded me of how thoroughly corrupt Ukraine was and again conveyed his frustration that Europe doesn’t do its fair share of providing military aid,” wrote Johnson.
When he asked the president about a quid pro quo, he said Trump shut down the rumor.

“Without hesitation, President Trump immediately shut down such an arrangement existed,” wrote Johnson.

After Sondland’s hearing wrapped, Johnson blasted the impeachment inquiry on Twitter. 

“This has been a damaging exercise,” Johnson said in a tweet.

Sen. Johnson was also skeptical of Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman in his letter ahead of his testimony on Tuesday.

He wrote Vindman fits the profile of a bureaucrat that “ has never accepted President Trump as legitimate and resent his unorthodox style and his intrusion onto their ‘turf.’”