Donald Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy


A US intelligence official’s complaint about Donald Trump’s risk to foreign policy involves Trump’s relationship with Ukraine, “according to two people familiar with the matter”.

Sources told The Washington Post on Wednesday that the complaint involves Trump’s “promise” to a foreign leader in a phone call. The US intelligence official filed the complaint with the Inspector General for the Intelligence Community, but the Director of National Intelligence is defying the law and refusing to give it to the House Intelligence Committee.

TrumpWatch, Day 972: Whistleblower Complaint is About Trump’s Communication with Foreign Leader

Details were not given in the initial article, but on Thursday sources told the Post of the Ukraine connection.

In late July, 2 1/2 weeks before the complaint was filed, Trump spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who took office in May.

That call is already under investigation by House Democrats. Trump and his attorney Rudy Giuliani are suspected of trying to press the Zelenskiy Government into helping Trump’s re-election campaign.

Some Trump allies have urged Ukraine to investigate affairs that could damage Trump’s political rivals, such as former Vice President and current Democratic Presidential candidate Joe Biden and his family.

Democratic legislators have demanded a full transcript and a list of participants on the call.

“Urgent Concern”

Inspector General Michael Atkinson determined that the intelligence official’s complaint was credible as a matter of “urgent concern”. That triggering the legal requirement to notify Congressional oversight committees, but Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire has refused to comply with provision of the document, bringing a subpoena from House Intelligence Committee chair Rep. Adam Schiff.

On Thursday, Atkinson testified for three hours behind closed doors to members of the Committee. He refused to discuss wthe content of the complaint, saying he was not authorized to do so. However, the Inspector General made clear that he disagreed with a lawyer for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence who said the complaint did not meet the standard of an “urgent concern”.

“He was being excruciatingly careful about the language he used,” a “person familiar with the briefing” said.

And Atkinson indicated that there could be matters beyond the Ukraine connection, saying the complaint was not just about a specific phone call.

The Ukraine Connection

“Government officials who handle foreign policy in the US and Ukraine” said that, after Ukraine President Zelenskiy was inaugurated, Trump attorney Giuliani’s efforts showed that the Trump Administration’s support for Kiev was linked to investigations sought by Trump allies.

In May, Giuliani said he would visit newly-elected President Zelenskiy. The announcement came as the attorney and Trump associates circulated claims that

Among them were false or misleading contentions that Joe Biden improperly pressured the Ukraine Government to fire a top prosecutor; that US diplomats in Ukraine had exhibited pro-Democrat bias; and that local officials conspired to undermine Trump’s campaign and help Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Days after announcing the trip, Giuliani cancelled it amid criticism of inappropriate interference in US-Ukraine relations. But he reportedly continued his efforts through two Florida businessmen, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, who had introduced Giuliani to three current and former senior Ukrainian prosecutors to discuss information that would damage Trump’s rivals.

The initiative included meetings in at least five countries, including the US, Israel, and France.

At the same time, the White House was holding up military assistance for Ukraine, despite Russia’s annexation of Crimea and Moscow’s backing of separatists in the east of the country.

Last week, Rep. Schiff and two other Democratic House committee chairmen requested the transcript of Trump’s call with Zelenskiy from the State Department and the White House. They wanted to examine if the delay in military aid was part of “President Trump’s effort to coerce the Ukrainian government into pursuing politically-motivated investigations”.

The following day, Schiff wrote to Maguire seeking information about the intelligence official’s complaint.
And the day after that, the White House released the military assistance to Ukraine.

Giuliani initially said on Thursday, “I’m not even aware of the fact that [Trump] had such a phone call” with a foreign leader. But he insisted that Trump had the right to tell a leader to investigate corruption, especially if it “bleeds over” into the US: “If I were President, I would say that.”

Trump used Twitter to say the story is “Fake News”: “I would only do what is right anyway, and only do good for the USA!”

Schiff was unmoved:

[Someone] is trying to manipulate the system to keep information about an urgent matter from the Congress….There certainly are a lot of indications that it was someone at a higher pay grade than the Director of National Intelligence.