Mr Trump allegedly pressured his Ukrainian counterpart during a telephone call in July to investigate his political rival Joe Biden, a leading Democrat contender in the White House race
One White House official described that as an abuse of the secure system because there was nothing"remotely sensitive" on the phone call from a national security perspective, the whistleblower said.It said multiple US officials reported that Mr Giuliani travelled to Madrid one week after the call to meet one of Mr Zelenskiy's advisers, and that the meeting was characterised as a follow-up to the telephone conversation between the two leaders.
The front page of a White House memorandum describing President Trump's call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy The White House released a rough transcript of the phone call in question on Wednesday - a summary that showed Mr Trump asked the Ukrainian president to look into why that country's top prosecutor apparently had ended an investigation of the business dealings of Joe Biden's son, who served on the board of a Ukrainian gas company. Though it was not explicit, Mr Trump also appeared to tie the award of aid to Ukraine to Mr Zelenskiy's willingness to co-operate.In the days before the phone call, Mr Trump ordered advisers to freeze $400m in military aid for Ukraine, prompting speculation that he was holding out the money as leverage for information on the Bidens. "I will say that we do a lot for Ukraine. We spend a lot of effort and a lot of time. Much more than the European countries are doing," Mr Trump said in the phone description, adding the US"has been very, very good to Ukraine". And now the House intelligence committee has released a mostly redacted version of the complaint ahead of testimony from Joseph Maguire, the acting director of national intelligence.Mr Trump was"using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country" in the 2020 election "The interference includes, among other things, pressuring a foreign country to investigate one of the president's main domestic political rivals...The president's personal lawyer, Mr Rudolph Giuliani, is a central figure in this effort. Attorney General Barr appears to be involved as well" The White House was so concerned it moved to"lock down" the transcript of the July phone call and removed it from a computer system typically used to store such call records and put it in a more secure system According to White House officials the whistleblower spoke with, that was"not the first time" the Trump administration placed a presidential transcript"into this codeword-level system solely for the purpose of protecting politically sensitive - rather than national security sensitive - information" The whistleblower, whose identity and gender is not known, was not a"direct witness" to most of what was described, relying instead on what others in the White House and administration told him or her and media accounts Mr Trump's actions posed"risks" to national security, undermined efforts to counter foreign interference, and constituted a"serious or flagrant problem, abuse, or violation of law or executive order" Multiple US officials told the whistleblower that Ukrainian leadership believed that a phone call or meeting between Mr Zelenskiy and Mr Trump was contingent on the Ukrainian president's willingness to"play ball" on the issues that could prove politically beneficial to Mr Trump On Mr Giuliani, who is not a government official but is Mr Trump's personal lawyer, the whistleblower wrote that beginning in mid-May"I heard from multiple US officials that they were deeply concerned by what they viewed as Mr Giuliani's circumvention of national security decision-making processes to engage with Ukrainian officials and relay messages back and forth between" Ukrainian leaders and Mr Trump Officials told the whistleblower that state department officials spoke to Mr Giuliani"in an attempt to 'contain the damage' to US national security" The whistleblower wrote of learning about a"sudden change of policy with respect to US assistance for Ukraine" in mid-July that executive branch officials could not explainMr Maguire, who came into his role four days after the complaint was submitted, has been grilled by the House intelligence committee and defended his decision to delay the release of information about the complaint because it was an"unprecedented" situation. He defended himself against accusations of falling foul of conflicts of interest. He was asked why he brought the complaint to the White House and the ministry of justice, when the president and attorney general were central to the complaint.Mr Maguire said he believes the whistleblower has acted in"good faith" and that once security clearance matters have been passed, the complainant will be able to testify to Congress and without fear of pressure from the White House. Mr Trump has denied the allegations, calling them a"witch-hunt", and the Ukrainian president has denied he was pressured by his US counterpart.
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