Defends withholding whistleblower complaint

'This is unprecedented': Intel chief defends withholding whistleblower complaint

Democrats seized on the whistleblower complaint about Trump's Ukraine call to advance their impeachment drive.

By ANDREW DESIDERIO and KYLE CHENEY

The nation’s top intelligence official on Thursday defended his handling of a whistleblower complaint that alleges Donald Trump abused the presidency by pressuring a foreign leader to investigate a political rival.

Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire dodged questions about whether he spoke with Trump about the complaint, frustrating lawmakers who sought clarity on why he initially withheld the complaint from Congress. Maguire told members of the House Intelligence Committee that he consulted with the White House counsel’s office after the intelligence community’s inspector general informed him of an “urgent” whistleblower complaint involving the president.

His comments stunned the panel’s Democrats, who grilled Maguire over the Trump administration’s argument that the complaint did not fit the legal definition of “urgent” because Trump is not an employee of the intelligence community.

“I am aware that this is unprecedented,” Maguire said of a president's involvement in such a whistleblower complaint. “This has never happened before. This is a unique situation.”

Maguire held to a tight script, but he distanced himself from Trump’s characterizations of the whistleblower, whose identity remains concealed, and of the complaint itself. He appeared to buttress the whistleblower’s credibility when he said the complaint is “in alignment” with the rough transcript of Trump’s call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that the White House released on Wednesday.

He also said he has no reason to doubt the determination by the inspector general for the intelligence community, Michael Atkinson, that the complaint was credible. Maguire also expressed open disagreement with Trump’s criticisms of the whistleblower as a partisan hack and a traitor.

“Absolutely not,” Maguire said when Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) asked him if he believed the whistleblower was loyal to another country. “I think the whistleblower did the right thing.”

Democrats sought to use the hearing as a catalyst for Trump’s impeachment, two days after Speaker Nancy Pelosi embraced formal impeachment proceedings. The whistleblower complaint, which was made public just minutes before the hearing, alleges that Trump abused his office when he pressured Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and that White House officials sought to cover it up.

“It would be funny, if it weren’t such a graphic betrayal of the president’s oath of office,” Schiff said.

“But as it does represent a real betrayal — there is nothing the president says here that is in America’s interest — it is instead the most consequential form of tragedy, for it forces us to confront the remedy the founders provided for such a flagrant abuse of office, impeachment,” he added.

Maguire revealed that he first asked White House lawyers about the complaint because it involved presidential conversations with a foreign leader, which are typically subject to executive privilege. He said it “seemed prudent,” as a member of the executive branch, to discuss the matter with other agencies.

He then consulted with the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, which determined that the complaint did not meet the legal definition of “urgent” because it did not involve a member of the intelligence community and therefore falls outside of Maguire’s jurisdiction.

Atkinson, the intelligence community's inspector general, disagreed with that determination and later informed the House Intelligence Committee of the complaint’s existence.

“It was urgent and important,” Maguire acknowledged. “But my job as the DNI was to comply with the Whistleblower Protection Act and adhere to the definition of ‘urgent concern,’ which is a legal term.”

Maguire sat on the complaint even though Atkinson, a Trump-appointed internal watchdog, deemed it “urgent” and credible. The watchdog even referred it to the Justice Department to examine whether campaign finance laws were broken. Now, Democrats are expediting consideration of articles of impeachment against Trump, citing evidence that he solicited foreign interference in the 2020 election.

The complaint alleges that White House officials were “deeply disturbed” by Trump’s phone call with Zelensky. It also stated that officials were already talking with White House lawyers because of the “likelihood … that they had witnessed the president abuse his office for personal gain.”

The complaint also says White House officials tried to “lock down” records of the phone call, and that the transcript was “loaded into a separate electronic system that is otherwise used to store and handle classified information of an especially sensitive nature.”

Maguire repeatedly refused to say whether he had spoken directly to Trump about the whistleblower complaint. Under questioning from Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), Maguire said he couldn’t discuss his conversations with Trump.

“My conversations with the president, because I’m the director of national intelligence, are privileged,” he said.

Maguire also said the White House never advised him to not provide the whistleblower complaint to Congress.

On Wednesday, Trump sought to preempt the hearing by releasing notes of a July 25 call with Zelesnky — which came just days after the White House blocked military aid marked for Ukraine — in which he repeatedly asked for a “favor.” During the 30-minute call, Trump asked Zelensky to both examine unfounded claims about Ukraine’s role in the 2016 election as well as to investigate Biden.

The release of the call notes seemed to compound Trump’s woes, however, emboldening Democrats to charge more quickly toward a possible impeachment.

Republicans have largely defended the president from accusations that he abused his office for political gain. But Ohio Rep. Mike Turner, a Republican member of the Intelligence Committee, admonished Trump for his conversation with Zelensky.

“I want to say to the president, this is not okay,” Turner said. “That conversation is not okay. And I think it’s disappointing to the American public when they read the transcript.”

Maguire’s appearance before the Intelligence Committee marked House Democrats’ first high-profile hearing since Pelosi embraced formal impeachment proceedings earlier this week, as Democrats united in outrage over Trump’s conversation with Zelensky. Many now expect Trump’s actions toward Ukraine to form the core of articles of impeachment that could come to the House floor before the end of the year.

“Our consensus in our caucus is that we will proceed under the auspices of where this matter is relevant, and that is in the Intelligence Committee,” Pelosi said on Thursday. “The timeline relates to how the committee proceeds, and our timeline will spring from them.”

The panel reviewed an unclassified version of the whistleblower complaint late Wednesday but has yet to obtain a report on the fuller investigation conducted by Atkinson, the inspector general. Democrats said they must see Atkinson’s report, too, because it likely contains the names of corroborating witnesses who confirmed the whistleblower’s account.

Schiff has also indicated he is consulting with the House general counsel about how to convey any classified details that might be relevant to the House’s impeachment inquiry to his colleagues and possibly the public.

Atkinson met with lawmakers behind closed doors last week but was unable to discuss the substance of the complaint because Maguire had not authorized him to do so.

Three House committees that have already been investigating Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani could issue subpoenas as early as Thursday if the State Department does not turn over documents related to Giuliani’s alleged efforts to recruit the Ukrainian government’s help in launching an investigation targeting Biden and his son.

Together, both Maguire’s hearing and the State Department’s refusal to turn over those documents could prompt even more House Democrats to endorse the impeachment inquiry. At least 221 lawmakers already support it.