A former U.S. official reiterated allegations that Woody Johnson, owner of the New York Jets and U.S. ambassador to the UK, tried to intervene with British government officials at U.S. president's request to steer the British Open golf tournament to Donald Trump's Turnberry resort in Scotland. 

During an interview with Rachel Maddow on MSNBC on Wednesday night, Lewis Lukens, the former Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in London, was asked about the allegations made against Johnson in a New York Times report in July. 

"The reporting has been very accurate on this. The New York Times story really got it right," Lukens said. 

"The ambassador came back from a meeting at the White House, the very next morning he came and talked to me, said the President wants me to do this. Who should I talk to, how should I go about doing it? I said, 'You can't, you shouldn't do it. This is unethical, probably illegal.' A couple weeks later, he asked again, I gave him the same answer. And then he went and had a meeting with a British minister responsible for Scotland and made the request, or made the suggestion at least."

Lukens said Johnson's attempt to secure the British Open for Trump violated the sanctity of the ambassador position. 

"It's a clear example of trying to use U.S. government resources and the position of the U.S. ambassador to the Court of St. James to line the President's pocket, to promote his personal business and support his personal financial interests," Lukens said.  

"So you don't have to take a three-hour course in ethics to understand that that's a violation of the oath of the constitution that we take as diplomats and the ambassador took before he came to London, to protect and serve the American people and the American Constitution, not the President's personal financial interests." 

Trump in July denied he ever asked Johnson to make the case for Turnberry, and Johnson has dismissed all allegations of inappropriate behavior, which were first reported by The New York Times and CNN.