He held up the aid temporarily.
As did Biden when he demanded that Ukraine fire a prosecutor.
Joe Biden said:
I looked at them and said: I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money. Well, son of a bitch. (Laughter.) He got fired. And they put in place someone who was solid at the time.
So that's just statesmanship. Quid pro quo. You do for me or I won't do for you. The US does it all the time. The Ghouliani narrative is that Joe was protecting Hunter's business interests. The liberal narrative is that there's no evidence for that, and that it was simply removing a corrupt prosecutor. Well, whatever. It's still a massive conflict of interest.
Extorting a foreign government is regular business. I'm presuming that it's only a high crime or misdemeanor if it's done for personal interest.
Either way, the Senate won't remove Trump unless intent can be proven. It can't. Trump will just say that his intent was to do the quid pro quo in the public interest. His advisor told him that the former Vice President bribed Ukraine to end the prosecution into the company where his own son served as a board member.
My own opinion is pretty simple. Yes, Trump is a greedy crook, and he was most likely intending to take out a political opponent. And yes, Joe Biden is a greedy crook, and he was most likely intending to help out his son.
Before caving and retracting, the House Democrat just made the mistake of revealing the political deal that's already been made off stage from the ongoing political theater. Conviction yes. Removal no. Censure yes. Otherwise the Republicans in the Senate will have a free pass to conduct their own stage show under a different director during the critical public opinion shaping months of 2020 that will say that Trump just made an honest mistake trusting Ghouliani and paint the entire Democratic party as being accessories to Joe Biden's unprosecuted crime.
NB: My misspelling of Giuliani's name was intentional. He's a despicable person, and I hope against common sense that he gets convicted of something in all of this.