Ron Johnson tried to save job of impeachment witness Gordon Sondland

MADISON - U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson in recent days tried to dissuade President Donald Trump from ousting a key impeachment witness who helped land Johnson in the middle of the House Democrats' probe.

Johnson is one of a handful of Republican senators who unsuccessfully urged Trump not to fire European Union ambassador Gordon Sondland as part of the president's effort to purge from his administration witnesses who testified in the House impeachment hearings, according to the New York Times.

"Gordon was pretty resigned he was going to be leaving the post anyway and I think it would have been nice to give him the ability to exit on his own terms and in his own time in a few weeks," Johnson said in an interview with POLITICO.

An aide to Johnson did not immediately respond to questions from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

The Wisconsin Republican became a key figure of the president's impeachment over withholding military aid from Ukraine in exchange for an investigation into Trump's political rivals after Johnson told the president he didn't want aid tied to such information gathering — a quid pro quo Johnson learned about from Sondland.

Sondland was fired Friday despite the Republicans' calls on the same day Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who also testified in the House impeachment hearings, was escorted out of the White House. The firings came two days after the U.S. Senate acquitted Trump on two articles of impeachment, which were ordered over the withholding of aid from Ukraine.

Johnson joined Maine Sen. Susan Collins, Sen. Martha McSally of Arizona and Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina in warning Trump about the optics of removing Sondland, according to the Times.

Johnson and the Republican lawmakers did not seek to preserve Vindman's job, however. He told POLITICO he didn't respect the way Vindman conducted himself. Both Sondland and Vindman testified under a congressional subpoena.

Johnson is chair of the Europe subcommittee of the Senate foreign relations panel and a member of the Senate’s bipartisan Ukraine Caucus. He has traveled to Ukraine six times. And he was the only member of Congress to attend Ukrainian president Voldomyr Zelensky's inauguration in May.

Johnson was blocked by Trump in August from telling Ukraine's president that U.S. aid was on its way amid accusations Trump was withholding it until the eastern European nation investigated his political rival.

Johnson told reporters Trump said he was considering withholding the aid because of alleged corruption involving the 2016 U.S. election. Johnson stood by the president, saying he was sympathetic to his concerns and didn't see any bad motives on his part.

Johnson’s full-throated and very public defense of Trump before and during the impeachment of the president stands out amid the silence of many of other Senate Republicans.

The Oshkosh Republican and Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley also are looking into "potential conflicts of interest" with Hunter Biden's business dealings in Ukraine and China. Hunter Biden is the son of former Vice President Joe Biden, a Democratic presidential candidate.

Grassley and Johnson sent a letter to Secret Service Director James Murray last week asking for clarification on "whether Hunter Biden used government-sponsored travel to help conduct private business" and details of his travel records.

In defending Trump from accusations that he improperly pressured Ukraine to open investigations into Biden and his son, Republicans have sought to shift the focus onto their claim that Biden conducted foreign policy in order to benefit his son's business interests in Ukraine, for which there is no evidence.

Republicans contend the reason Joe Biden pushed out a former Ukrainian prosecutor was to quell a probe into the Ukrainian energy company for which Hunter Biden served on the board. The former vice president's position was actually that the prosecutor wasn't tough enough on corruption cases in the nation, a view shared by international leaders and anti-corruption groups.

Democrats have said Trump only wanted investigations to damage Joe Biden in the 2020 election and allegations of corruption against him had been debunked, while Trump's legal team argued in the Senate trial that the president had legitimate reasons to be concerned.

USA TODAY contributed to this report.

Contact Molly Beck at molly.beck@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter at @MollyBeck.