WHISTLEBLOWER said to seek advice early.

WASHINGTON — The Democratic head of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Adam Schiff of California, learned about the outlines of a CIA officer’s concerns that President Donald Trump had abused his power days before the officer filed a whistleblower complaint, according to a spokesman and current and former American officials.

The early account by the future whistleblower shows how determined he was to make known his allegations that Trump asked Ukraine’s government to interfere on his behalf in the 2020 election. It also explains how Schiff knew to press for the complaint when the Trump administration initially blocked lawmakers from seeing it.

The CIA officer approached a House Intelligence Committee aide with his concerns about Trump only after he had had a colleague first convey them to the CIA’s top lawyer. Concerned about how that initial avenue for airing his allegations through the CIA was unfolding, the officer then approached the House aide. In both cases, the original accusation was vague.

The House staff member, following the committee’s procedures, suggested the officer find a lawyer to advise him and meet with an inspector general, with whom he could file a whistleblower complaint. The aide told Schiff some of what the officer conveyed. The aide did not reveal the whistleblower’s identity to Schiff, an official said.

“Like other whistleblowers have done before and since under Republican and Democratic-controlled committees, the whistleblower contacted the committee for guidance on how to report possible wrongdoing within the jurisdiction of the intelligence community,” said Patrick Boland, a spokesman for Schiff.

In his whistleblower complaint, the officer said Trump pressured the Ukrainian government to investigate a host of issues that could benefit him politically, including one connected to the son of former Vice President Joe Biden.

A memo released by the White House of a call between Trump and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy of Ukraine backed up the whistleblower’s account, which was itself based on information from a half-dozen American officials and deemed credible by the inspector general for the intelligence community, Michael Atkinson.

Trump, who has focused his ire on Schiff during the Ukraine inquiry, used the revelation about the whistleblower’s attempt to alert Congress to try to denigrate his complaint. In a news conference in the East Room of the White House after this article was published, Trump called it a scandal that Schiff knew the outlines of the whistleblower’s accusations before he filed his complaint.

“Big stuff. That’s a big story,” Trump said, waving a copy of the article in the air. “He knew long before and helped write it, too. It’s a scam,” the president added, accusing Schiff of helping the whistleblower write his complaint. Schiff’s spokesman said he saw no part of the complaint before it was filed.

The whistleblower’s decision to offer what amounted to an early warning to the intelligence committee’s Democrats is also sure to thrust Schiff even more forcefully into the center of the controversy as a target of Trump’s.

On Wednesday, Trump said Schiff should be forced to resign for reading a parody of the Ukraine call at a hearing, an act Trump has called treasonous and criminal.

“We don’t call him shifty Schiff for nothing,” Trump said. “He’s a shifty dishonest guy.”

Schiff’s aides followed procedures involving the whistleblower’s accusations, Boland said. They referred him to an inspector general, and advised him to seek legal counsel.

Schiff never saw any part of the complaint or knew precisely what the whistleblower would deliver, Boland said.

In response to questions, spokeswomen for Sens. Richard Burr of North Carolina, the Republican chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Mark Warner of Virginia, its Democratic vice chairman, said it was standard procedure to refer whistleblowers to the relevant inspectors general.

“The intelligence community whistleblower followed the advice of legal counsel from the beginning,” said Andrew Bakaj, lead counsel for the whistleblower. “The laws and processes have been followed.”