US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky shake hands during a meeting in New York. Photo: AFP
A top Pentagon official who objected to President Donald Trump's decision to withhold military aid to Ukraine has been pushed out of his job, CNN is reporting.
According to CNN, John Rood, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy at the Pentagon, has been asked for his resignation after he "lost support among senior national security leadership."
CNN's sources say that Rood objected to President Donald Trump's efforts to shake down the Ukrainian government to get it to announce an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden.
In an email sent to Defense Secretary Mark Esper shortly after Trump's infamous July 25th phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Rood asserted that there was no justification for holding up aid to Ukraine.
"Placing a hold on security assistance at this time would jeopardize this unique window of opportunity and undermine our defense priorities with a key partner in the strategic competition with Russia," he wrote.
Rood also took part in the process of certifying that Ukraine had sufficiently addressed the American government's concerns about internal corruption prior to the aid being withheld.
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