The Whistleblower Complaint Arrives Just in Time for Treason Season
Ashley Reese
Image: Getty
The whistleblower complaint that spurred the formal impeachment inquiry currently playing out in the House has been released in its declassified, redacted form—and it's riddled with damning allegations against President Trump, Attorney General Barr, and Rudy Giuliani, if you can believe it.
The whistleblower complaint details reports about a July phone call between Trump and Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky in which Trump
appeared to pressure Zelensky to investigate the Hunter Biden, the fail son of Trump's potential 2020 election rival, Joe Biden. The complaint claims that White House officials who listened to the call were "deeply disturbed" by Trump's actions.
"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," writes the whistleblower.
The whistleblower also writes that there were efforts made by senior White House officials to restrict access to records of the phone call and that Giuliani had reportedly met with Zelensky's advisors to follow up on Trump's so-called "request."
But there was a strident attempt to keep this information under wraps.
From Vox:
The complaint was filed with intelligence community Inspector General Michael Atkinson, who deemed it credible and a matter of "urgent concern," and wanted the congressional intelligence committees informed.
But Atkinson's superiors at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence stepped in and initially refused to give any details of the complaint to Congress — even though a law seems to require them to do this. They did so while in consultation with the Justice Department and White House.
Atkinson made the House Intelligence Committee aware of the complaint In early September, however. On Thursday, acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire is testifying before the House Intelligence Committee regarding the steps—or rather, missteps—that occurred to reach this point.
Meanwhile, President Trump is handling this juicy whistleblower complain as expected:
Read the full complaint below:
Unclassified Whistleblower ... by GMG Editorial on Scribd