Political Junkie

Political Junkie

Get breaking news stories and important updates around the 2016 Presidential Election race

 

White House Whistleblower Complaint About Trump Involves Ukraine, Report

President Trump Welcomes Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison To Washington On State Visit

The Washington Post reported on Thursday that Ukraine is at the center of a whistleblowing complaint that was filed by an intelligence officer after they learned about a "promise" President Donald Trump made to a foreign leader.

Citing two unnamed sources that were familiar with the matter, the complaint involves a phone call between Trump and an unnamed foreign leader in which the president made some kind of promise that was so alarming, the intelligence official who worked at the White House went to the inspector general of the intelligence community to file a whistleblowing complaint.

Details on the specific allegations still haven't been revealed, because Trump's acting director of national intelligence, Joseph Maguire has so far refused to send the report to the House Intelligence Committee as outlined by law. CNN reported Thursday that the White House argues the complaint is invalid because it remains outside intelligence activities that are covered by the whistleblowing laws.

Trump ripped the report by the Washington Post in a tweet Friday morning characterizing it as another partisan attack.

"The Radical Left Democrats and their Fake News Media partners, headed up again by Little Adam Schiff, and batting Zero for 21 against me, are at it again! They think I may have had a “dicey” conversation with a certain foreign leader based on a “highly partisan” whistleblowers statement. Strange that with so many other people hearing or knowing of the perfectly fine and respectful conversation, that they would not have also come forward. Do you know the reason why they did not? Because there was nothing said wrong, it was pitch perfect!" Trump wrote.

According to the Post's report, two and a half weeks before the complaint was filed, Trump spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was recently elected in May. That call was already under investigation by House Democrats, who say they're trying to determine whether Trump and his attorney, Rudy Giuliani asked the Ukrainian government to help Trump's 2020 reelection campaign.

A separate article on Sept. 5 by the Post's editorial board suggested Trump had been withholding military aid to Ukraine in an effort to pressure the country into investigating former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, who serves on the board of a Ukrainian gas company.

Giuliani initially denied being in contact with Ukraine in an interview with CNN's Chris Cuomo on Thursday. But he appeared to contradict himself moments later when Cuomo pressed the former New York mayor.

"So you did ask Ukraine to look into Joe Biden?" Cuomo pressed.

"Of course I did," Giuliani said.

Hours after his appearance, Giuliani wrote on twitter that the president has every right to speak with foreign leaders.

"A President telling a Pres-elect of a well known corrupt country he better investigate corruption that affects US is doing his job. Maybe if Obama did that the Biden Family wouldn’t have bilked millions from Ukraine and billions from China; being covered up by a Corrupt Media," Giuliani wrote.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman, Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA), said Thursday that his committee could use legal action to gain access to the whistleblower complaint.

"This is not a situation where we can afford to go through weeks or months of litigation in this court or that court. There is an urgency here that I think the courts will recognize," Schiff told reporters Thursday afternoon. "I hope that's not necessary. And I hope that the director of national intelligence will reconsider."

Photo: Getty Images


Sponsored Content

Sponsored Content