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Whistleblower complaint is out
Whistleblower complaint is out: It alleges Trump abused power to influence 2020 election
The House Intelligence Committee on Thursday released a redacted version of the whistleblower complaint that has embroiled President Donald Trump in an impeachment inquiry and clouded his political future.
The nine-page document details concerns that the president is “using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election.” It not only details Trump’s July 25 call with Ukraine’s president during which he asked his counterpart to investigate the Biden family, but also alleges administration efforts to “lock down” records of the conversation.
The complaint, based on the accounts of more than half a dozen U.S. officials, implicates more than Trump. It calls his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani a “central figure” in the effort. It also says Attorney General William Barr “appears to be involved as well.”
Trump’s actions outlined in the document have led House Democrats to accuse him of abusing the powers of his office by trying to get a foreign state to investigate one of his chief political rivals. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Tuesday that the chamber would start impeachment proceedings into Trump, alleging a “betrayal of his oath of office, betrayal of our national security and betrayal of integrity of our elections.”
Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire testified about the complaint before the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday. Members of congressional intelligence panels had a chance to review the document Wednesday.
In a statement Thursday, White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said, “Nothing has changed with the release of this complaint, which is nothing more than a collection of third-hand accounts of events and cobbled-together press clippings—all of which shows nothing improper.” She said the president released a memorandum summarizing the call Wednesday “because he has nothing to hide.”
“The White House will continue to push back on the hysteria and false narratives being peddled by Democrats and many in the main stream media, and President Trump will continue to work hard on behalf of the American people as he always does,” she said.
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A spokeswoman for Giuliani did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request to comment.
Department of Justice officials in the agency’s criminal division concluded that the call did not constitute a campaign finance violation, NBC News reported Wednesday. That division determined last week that Trump’s request to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky did not amount to a “thing of value” as the law requires, an official told NBC.
The complaint has three main sections: “The 25 July Presidential phone call,” “efforts to restrict access to records related to the call” and “ongoing concerns.”
The administration on Wednesday released a summary of the call between Trump and Zelensky, which showed Trump asked his counterpart if he can “look into” former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter. He also suggested the Ukrainian government should cooperate with Giuliani and Barr.
In the complaint, the whistle blower writes that Trump “sought to pressure the Ukrainian leader to take actions to help the President’s 2020 reelection bid.” After the person summarized the phone call, they continued:
The White House officials who told me this information were deeply disturbed by what had transpired in the phone call. They told me that there was already a “discussion ongoing” with White House lawyers about how to treat the call because of the likelihood, in the officials’ retelling, that they had witnessed the President abuse his office for personal gain.
The whistleblower goes on to write that “I learned from multiple U.S. officials that senior White House officials had intervened to ‘lock down’ all records of the phone call, especially the official word-for-word transcript of the call that was produced- as is customary-by the White House Situation Room.” The person writes that officials said White House lawyers “directed” them to pull the electronic transcript of the call from the computer system where it is typically stored and put into into a “separate electronic system that is otherwise used to store and handle classified information of an especially sensitive nature.”
“One White House official described this act as an abuse of this electronic system because the call did not contain anything remotely sensitive from a national security perspective,” the author of the complaint writes.
The whistleblower adds that they do not know whether the White House took other measures to restrict access to other records of the call such as handwritten notes.
The document outlines other concerns, including a meeting between U.S. officials and Zelensky and his advisors that took place a day after Trump’s call with Zelensky. Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine, Kurt Volker, and U.S. Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland gave the Ukrainian government advice on how to “navigate” Trump’s demands, the whistleblower writers, citing multiple readouts recounted by various U.S. officials.
The complaint also says Giuliani met with one of Zelensky’s advisors in Madrid on Aug. 2 in what is described as a “direct follow-up” to Trump’s call with the Ukrainian president.