Trump Calls Intelligence Whistleblower ‘Highly Partisan’

President Donald Trump said Friday that a “highly partisan” intelligence community whistleblower is behind a complaint filed against him regarding his interactions with the leader of a foreign country, who has been identified in the press as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

On Twitter, Trump denied saying anything improper in a phone conversation that is said to be at the center of the complaint.

“The Radical Left Democrats and their Fake News Media partners, headed up again by Little Adam Schiff, and batting Zero for 21 against me, are at it again!” Trump wrote on Twitter.

“They think I may have had a ‘dicey’ conversation with a certain foreign leader based on a “highly partisan” whistleblowers……statement.”

“Strange that with so many other people hearing or knowing of the perfectly fine and respectful conversation, that they would not have also come forward. Do you know the reason why they did not? Because there was nothing said wrong, it was pitch perfect!”

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1175023772375683074?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1175023773180932097?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer
The Washington Post and New York Times reported Thursday that an intelligence official who worked in the White House filed the complaint with the Intelligence Community Inspector General (ICIG) on Aug. 12. The whistleblower was alarmed over a commitment that Trump allegedly made during a phone call with Zelensky.

The whistleblower has not been identified, and it is not clear if Trump knows who the person is.

Trump and Zelensky spoke by phone on July 25. House Democrats requested records of that call last month as part of a separate investigation into whether Trump threatened to withhold $250 million in military aid from Ukraine if the government did not investigate Joe Biden’s business ties to he eastern European country. Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani has met multiple times with Ukrainian officials to urge them to investigate Biden.

The administration approved the military aid a day after the whistleblower complaint was filed, though there is no evidence that the two events are linked.

Rep. Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, forced the complaint into public view last week after he pressed the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) to provide the document to Congress.

Michael Atkinson, the ICIG, told the intelligence committee that he found the complaint credible and urgent, meaning that ODNI was required by law to provide it to Congress within seven days.

But Joseph Maguire, the acting director of national intelligence, has refused to provide the information to Congress. Maguire said that he was not required to hand over the complaint because it dealt with privileged information involving someone outside the intelligence community.

Schiff said at a press conference on Thursday that the Justice Department directed ODNI not to provide the complaint to Congress.