Ohio members of the U.S. Senate and House both called for more information about the controversial July call from President Donald Trump to the Ukrainian president asking for a probe of Joe Biden. The Ohioans' responses were guarded: None supported Trump, but none called for impeachment, either.

President Donald Trump said Monday that he put no pressure on the new Ukranian president to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, but Ohioans in Congress want to know more.

“I think the administration should be as forthcoming as possible," Republican Sen. Rob Portman said.

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Trump said he hopes a transcript of the July 25 call to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy will be released, claiming it will exonerate him. The conversation, which is said to be part of a whistleblower complaint that his administration refuses to share with Congress, occurred as the administration was delaying the release of a $391 million security aid package to Ukraine, raising questions about whether the president used the money as "incentive" for Ukrainian officials to look into Biden.

‘‘No, I didn’t — I didn’t do it,’’ Trump told reporters, when asked whether he had conditioned the aid on the promise of an investigation of Biden. "I put no pressure on them whatsoever. I could have. I think it would probably, possibly have been OK if I did. But I didn't. I did not make a statement that 'you have to do this or I'm not going to give you aid.' I wouldn't do that."

The president also asserted, "Joe Biden is the one that did a very, very bad thing," repeating allegations — discredited by multiple fact-checkers — that Biden influenced Ukrainian officials to dump a prosecutor probing his son Hunter.

Regarding release of a transcript, Trump, after saying that ‘‘I hope you get to see it soon,’’ angrily denied that he had committed to releasing the document, contending that making the transcript public would set a bad precedent. He waffled repeatedly over whether he would authorize its disclosure.

"It seems to me the transcript of the call would clear up a lot, but I agree that creates a bad precedent for the confidentiality of future head-of-state calls," Portman said. "One solution I would support is to release the transcript if the Ukrainians agree.”

Like Portman's comments, Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown's remarks came in a prepared statement sent by his staff.

Said Brown said, “Any effort by Trump or Trump’s associates to pressure a foreign government to dig up dirt on his political opponent, while holding up vital military aid to that country, is both corrupt and a threat to our interests.”

Republican Steve Stivers of Upper Arlington said, “These are very serious allegations, and I’ll be monitoring the situation closely as Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire testifies before the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday.”

Democrat Joyce Beatty of the Gahanna area said, “If press reports are accurate that President Trump repeatedly pressured Ukrainian officials to investigate a political rival, he must be held accountable for lying and misleading the American people. Our country’s foreign policy should further the interests of all Americans, not the political whims of the White House.

"I call on acting Director Maguire to release the full whistleblower complaint as required by federal law, so that we know all the facts," Beatty said. "Americans deserve to know the truth.”

A spokeswoman for Rep. Troy Balderson, R-Zanesville, said: "Congressman Balderson believes these are serious allegations and will continue to monitor as news about the situation unfolds."

Members of Congress have called on the White House to release the transcript of Trump’s call with Zelenskiy, and Democrats were moving aggressively Monday to use their oversight powers to compel the administration to comply with their requests. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York sent a letter Monday to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky demanding hearings, a transcript of Trump's call and a subpoena for the whistleblower complaint, which a Trump-appointed inspector general labeled "urgent" and "credible."

And the chairs of the House Oversight, Intelligence and Foreign Affairs committees wrote Secretary of State Mike Pompeo seeking material relating to the Ukrainian allegations.

But while the new revelations have increased Democrats' calls for impeachment, Speaker Nancy Pelosi isn't there yet. However, she said Sunday that unless the administration turns over requested information to Congress, Trump “will be entering a grave new chapter of lawlessness which will take us into a whole new stage of investigation."

Earlier this month, Portman was among a bipartisan group of senators who wrote a letter urging the Trump administration to release the authorized military security assistance for Ukraine. When the money finally was released last month, Portman called Trump to thank him.

Portman rode with the president to his appearance Sunday in Wapakoneta in the "Beast," an armored limo used by the president to travel from the airport in Lima to the event. Afterward, Portman tweeted about the good economy under Trump but did not mention anything relating to Ukraine.

A spokeswoman would not say whether Portman and Trump talked about the Ukraine matter.

Portman is co-chairman of the Senate Ukraine Caucus. He visited the country earlier this year and met with Zelenskiy, Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces Ruslan Khomchak, Minister of Finance Oksana Markarova and other Ukrainian leaders.

The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Trump pressured Zelenskiy about eight times during the call to investigate Biden and his son, saying his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, would work with them.

On Sunday, Trump acknowledged the call involved Biden: “It was largely the fact that we don’t want our people, like Vice President Biden and his son, creating to the corruption already in the Ukraine.”

Monday, Trump appeared to also acknowledge the connection with the military aid: “If we're supporting a country, we want to make sure that country is honest. If you don't talk about corruption, why would you give money to a country that you think is corrupt? One of the reasons the new president got elected is he was going to stop corruption. So it's very important that on occasion you speak to somebody about corruption. Very important.”

The president admitted he did not know who reported details about the call, but he called the whistleblower "partisan." Monday, Trump also questioned his loyalty, tweeting, "Is he on our Country’s side."

During one of his stints on CNN, former Ohio Gov. John Kasich called out his fellow Republicans for their lack of concern about the matter.

"Where are you? Are you hiding under a rock? This is not political. This is our national security we're talking about here," he said.

"We need to know what happened. If, in fact, the president of the United States pressured the leader of another country to investigate his political enemy — if, in fact, military aid was withheld, now we have to decide where to go from there. If we don't deal with this, we become like a banana republic."

And he added: "If Barack Obama had made calls like this, people would be going crazy."

But Trump said, in his comments to reporters, said: "If a Republican ever did what Joe Biden did, if a Republican ever said what Joe Biden said, they’d be getting the electric chair right now."

Trump also alleged to reporters at the United Nations, without offering proof, that Hunter Biden, an international business consultant during his father’s time in office, "took money" from China and suggested that the former vice president would strike a softer line toward Beijing as a result. China, Trump said, "can think of nothing they’d rather see than Biden get in."

There is no evidence that the younger Biden’s business dealings have had any effect on his father’s public policy positions. Trump has seized on the elder Biden’s insistence in 2016 that Ukraine fire its top prosecutor at a time when a Ukrainian company on whose board Hunter Biden sat was suspected of criminal activity. But that prosecutor was widely seen as corrupt and was not aggressively pursuing a case against the company, Burisma Holdings.

During a meeting with President Andrzej Duda of Poland on Monday, Trump suggested that his main complaint about the U.S. aid to Ukraine — which he temporarily suspended this summer before releasing it last month amid bipartisan pressure from Congress — involved a lack of European assistance to the country. "Why isn’t Europe helping Ukraine more?" Trump said. "Why is it always the United States?"

Information from Dispatch Reporter Rick Rouan and The New York Times was included in this story.

drowland@dispatch.com

@darreldrowland