Dems: New leads over impeachment
Lawmakers say whistleblower’s complaint over Trump actions is deeply disturbing
Democrats who reviewed a secret whistleblower complaint involving President Donald Trump have called it “deeply disturbing” and said it gives them new leads to pursue as they consider impeachment.
The complaint from an intelligence community whistleblower, the document at the centre of a firestorm about Trump’s handling of Ukraine, was made available to members of House and Senate intelligence committees yesterday after weeks of delay. Lawmakers were allowed to see the complaint before acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire was set to testify to Congress about it.
The complaint is at least in part related to a July phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in which Trump prodded Zelenskiy to investigate Democratic political rival Joe Biden. The White House released a rough transcript of that call yesterday.
House Democrats emerging from a secure room would not divulge details of the complaint, but described it as disturbing and urgent. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said it “exposed serious wrongdoing” and “certainly provides information for the committee to follow up with others”.
Eric Swalwell told CNN that the whistleblower “laid out a lot of other documents and witnesses who were subjects in this matter”.
The complaint showed the whistleblower learned details of the call from White House officials, according to one person familiar with the complaint who was granted anonymity to discuss it. Another such person said the lawmakers did not learn the identity of the whistleblower.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — who on Wednesday fully endorsed an impeachment investigation in light of the Ukraine revelations — and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer also viewed the complaint. Schumer said he is even “more worried” now than he was before reading it and “there are huge numbers of facts crying out for investigation”.
Most Republicans were quiet or defended the President as they left the secure rooms. But at least one Republican said he was concerned by what he had read. “Republicans ought not to be rushing to circle the wagons and say there’s no ‘there there’ when there’s obviously a lot that’s very troubling there,” said Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse, a GOP member of the Senate intelligence panel who has been an occasional critic of Trump.
The rough phone call transcript released by the White House yesterday showed that Trump prodded Zelenskiy to work with the US Attorney General and Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani to investigate Democrat Joe Biden.
Lawmakers said they needed to see the complaint, not just the memo about the call, as they investigate the President and whether his actions were inappropriate.
Pelosi on Wednesday said that if Trump abused his presidential powers, it would mark a “betrayal of his oath of office”.
It is unclear if the complaint will eventually be made public.
Both Republicans and Democrats
have called for it to be released.
The House and Senate committees have invited the whistleblower to testify, but it is uncertain whether the person will appear and whether his or her identity could be adequately protected without Maguire’s blessing.
The unidentified whistleblower
submitted a complaint to Michael Atkinson, the Government’s intelligence inspector general, in August. Maguire blocked release of the complaint to Congress, citing issues of presidential privilege and saying the complaint did not deal with an “urgent concern”. Atkinson disagreed,
but said his hands were tied.
Maguire is testifying publicly before the House Intelligence Committee today and privately before the Senate panel. Atkinson met privately with House lawmakers last week and will talk privately to the Senate committee today.