The White House scrambled to “lock down” records of US President Donald Trump’s telephone call pressing for Ukraine’s interference in next year’s US election, according to an incendiary whistle-blower complaint released on Thursday, in the latest episode of an intensifying impeachment drama.
The complaint caps a stunning week of revelations that have put Trump’s presidency in jeopardy, with his administration, the US Department of Justice and the US Department of State all engulfed in the mushrooming scandal.
It alleges that White House officials said that they had likely “witnessed the president abuse his office for personal gain” in the July call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The alleged misconduct centers on Trump urging Zelensky to investigate the US leader’s political rival, former US vice president Joe Biden — prompting the complaint and triggering a congressional impeachment probe.
The whistle-blower, who said that he spoke to at least six US government officials, concluded that Trump was “using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 US election.”
“I learned from multiple US 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,” they wrote.
US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi led Democratic condemnation of Trump and those alleged to have hidden the call’s full transcript on a limited-access electronic record system.
“This is a cover-up,” she told reporters, adding that Trump has “betrayed his oath of office, our national security and the integrity of our elections.”
The speaker on Tuesday launched an official impeachment inquiry. As of Thursday, a majority of the 435-seat House — 218 Democrats and one independent — said that they supported the probe.
In private remarks to staff at the US mission to the UN, Trump attacked the whistle-blower as “almost a spy” and likened the complaint to treason.
Democrats suggested such attacks broke the law.
“The president’s comments today constitute reprehensible witness intimidation and an attempt to obstruct [the US] Congress’ impeachment inquiry,” the chairmen of three House committees investigating the complaint said in a joint statement.
The whistle-blower on Aug. 12 presented the nine-page complaint to the inspector general of the intelligence community, a Trump appointee, who found it credible and of “urgent concern” and forwarded it to Acting US Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire.
Maguire initially refused to deliver the complaint to Congress, but it was ultimately declassified, and Congress released it on Thursday.
Trump has acknowledged that he urged Ukraine to launch an corruption probe against Biden — a front-runner in the race to take on the president in next year’s election — and Biden’s son.
On the call, Trump said that he was enlisting US Attorney General Bill Barr and his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani — a private citizen — to coordinate with Ukrainian officials on the investigation.
The non-verbatim record of the call did not show Trump explicitly tying aid to Zelensky probing Biden, and the White House said the complaint showed that Trump did “nothing improper.”
Soliciting foreign help in a US election is illegal, regardless of whether inducements are offered.
Maguire testified before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence that he earlier withheld the complaint because Trump’s call was subject to executive privilege.
However, Maguire also said that he thought the whistle-blower “did the right thing.”
On Thursday, the New York Times reported that he is a male CIA officer who was detailed to the White House.
The newspaper defended its decision to publish limited details about the whistle-blower’s identity, citing the need to establish his credibility.
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