POLITICS

Whistleblower says Trump used 'the power of his office' to solicit foreign help to discredit Joe Biden

WASHINGTON – The whistleblower's complaint that sparked an impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump was released Thursday, revealing concern that the president "used the power of his office" to solicit foreign help to discredit one of his main political rivals.

The whistleblower, who has not been identified publicly, detailed efforts by senior White House officials to "lock down" access to records of a phone call July 25 between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in which Trump urged his counterpart to investigate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.

The complaint, contained in a letter to the chairmen of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, suggested that Trump's efforts "constitute a serious and flagrant problem."

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"The White House officials who told me this information were deeply disturbed by what had transpired in the phone call," the whistleblower said. "They told me that there was already a discussion ongoing with White House lawyers about how to treat the call because of the likelihood ... that they had witnessed the president abuse his office for personal gain."

The complaint cites Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani as a "central figure in this effort."

"Attorney General (William) Barr appears to be involved as well," the complaint says. A summary of Trump's call with Zelensky, which was released Wednesday by the White House, indicated that the president repeatedly offered to enlist Barr to help Ukraine investigate Biden.

The Justice Department said Wednesday that Barr was unaware until late last month that Trump mentioned him in the phone call with Zelensky. Officials said Barr had no communication with Ukrainian officials. The complaint indicates that the whistleblower did not know to what extent, "if at all," Giuliani may have coordinated his work with Barr.

Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire testified before the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday over his initial decision to block the complaint's transmission to members of Congress.

After the complaint was filed Aug. 12, the inspector general for the intelligence community, Michael Atkinson, found it credible and urgent, the threshold necessary to inform lawmakers. Maguire and the Justice Department blocked Atkinson from immediately passing along its contents to Congress as required by law.

The standoff was resolved when the White House disclosed a summary of the phone call, freeing the complaint to be transmitted to Capitol Hill.

Outlined across nine pages, the complaint provides more details about Trump's call and the White House's alleged efforts to manage the political and legal implications if the communication was made public.

The whistleblower described efforts to "lock down" information about the Zelensky call. "This set of actions underscored to me that White House officials understood the gravity of what had transpired in the call," the whistleblower said.

The complaint states that White House officials were “directed” by White House lawyers to remove the electronic transcript from the computer system where presidential call transcripts are typically stored. The complaint does not identify the White House officials or the lawyers.

“Instead, the transcript was loaded into a separate electronic system that is otherwise used to store and handle classified information of an especially sensitive nature,” the whistleblower said. “One White House official described this act as an abuse of this electronic system because the call did not contain anything remotely sensitive from a national security perspective.”

White House officials again denied that Trump sought to pressure Ukraine and noted that the whistleblower acknowledged throughout the complaint having not personally witnessed many of the events described.

“Nothing has changed with the release of this complaint, which is nothing more than a collection of third-hand accounts of events and cobbled-together press clippings – all of which show nothing improper," White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham said in a statement. "The president took the extraordinary and transparent steps of releasing the full, unredacted, and declassified transcript of his call with President Zelensky, which forms the heart of the complaint, as well as the complaint itself.  That is because he has nothing to hide."

The whistleblower describes communication with more than a half-dozen U.S. officials that helped form the basis of the complaint.

The complaint alleges repeated efforts by Giuliani to carry out Trump's stated goal: to push Ukrainian officials to investigate Biden and his son Hunter in connection with the son's association with a Ukrainian energy company while his father was vice president and working with Ukraine's government.

The complaint chronicles Giuliani's efforts, beginning in the spring after Zelensky's election, to make Trump's case with the incoming Ukrainian administration.

"Starting in mid-May, I heard from multiple U.S. officials that they were deeply concerned by what they viewed as Mr. Giuliani's circumvention of the national security decision-making process to engage with Ukrainian officials and relay messages back and forth between Kiev (the Ukrainian capital) and the president," the complaint says.

Giuliani's actions were so alarming, the whistleblower said, that State Department officials spoke with the former New York mayor "in an attempt to contain the damage to U.S. national security."

"During this same time frame, multiple U.S. officials told me that the Ukrainian leadership was led to believe that a meeting or phone call between the president and President Zelensky would depend on whether Zelensky showed willingness to play ball," the whistleblower said.

Giuliani did not respond to requests for comment.

“If you use your governmental position to get a benefit for yourself, whether political, monetary or otherwise, you can’t do that. … This is about as serious as it gets,” said Jeffrey Harris, who worked for Giuliani when Giuliani was the No. 3 Justice Department official during the Reagan administration.

Paul Rosenzweig, a former Whitewater prosecutor under independent counsel Kenneth Star, said the case for Trump's impeachment is probably strengthened by a feature that Russia special counsel Robert Mueller did not have: Trump’s own words. The administration's decision to release the summary of the president’s call may have placed Trump in a precarious position in which his words can be used against him.

“This is out of the horse’s mouth. … Typically, admission by a defendant is the best form of evidence,” said Rosenzweig, a senior fellow at the R Street Institute. “It seems to me almost impossible not to think that this is a big problem for the president. Instead of being able to say ‘No collusion,’ he now has to say, ‘Yes collusion. Why does it matter?'

“If the Mueller investigation had revealed that President Trump had had personal conversation with (Russia President) Vladimir Putin and promised him something – assistance in Syria in exchange for dirt about Hillary Clinton’s daughter, Chelsea – everybody would’ve said that’s collusion, that’s conspiracy, that’s wrong,” Rosenzweig said. “That’s exactly what happened here.”

Former federal prosecutors said Giuliani’s involvement indicates the president’s desire to advance his own personal interest and political gain, not that of the United States.

That Trump, according to the whistleblower’s allegations, used Giuliani to communicate with Ukraine shows a “consciousness of guilt,” said Patrick Cotter, a former federal prosecutor in New York.

“He wasn’t acting as an envoy for the United States. He was acting as an envoy for an individual named Donald Trump. He does not have an official status. … He was carrying out personal business for Donald Trump."