Report: Mystery Whistleblower Complaint Involves Alleged Trump Phone Call With Foreign Leader

A whistleblower complaint that has captivated Washington this week reportedly involves an alleged phone call between President Donald Trump and a foreign leader.

A whistleblower who works in the intelligence community filed the complaint with the Intelligence Community Inspector General on Aug. 12 over a phone call in which Trump made some sort of “promise” to the foreign leader, who has not been identified, according to two former intelligence officials, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

Rep. Adam Schiff, the chairman of the intelligence community, has accused Joseph Maguire, the acting director of national intelligence, of improperly withholding the complaint from Congress.

Michael Atkinson, the inspector general for the intelligence community, characterized the whistleblower complaint as an “urgent concern,” a threshold that requires the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) to submit the complaint to the House and Senate Intelligence committees within seven days after it is filed.

ODNI has resisted, saying that the complaint did not meet the threshold of an “urgent” issue, and that it involved issues that might involve executive privilege.

Hours before the Post story dropped, Schiff announced that Maguire will meet with the House Intelligence panel behind closed doors on Thursday. He will appear in an open hearing on Sept. 26.

According to The Post, the whistleblower was alarmed by Trump’s conversation with his foreign counterpart. Trump is known to have spoken by phone to Russian president Vladimir Putin on July 31, and met with the presidents of Pakistan and Qatar in the weeks preceding the whistleblower complaint.

It is unclear what former national intelligence director Dan Coats knew of the complaint. He officially left office on Aug. 15, though Maguire had taken over day-to-day operations beforehand.