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Whistle-Blower’s Complaint Says White House Tried to ‘Lock Down’ Ukraine Call Records White House Tried to ‘Lock Down’ Ukraine Call Records, Whistle-Blower Says
(about 2 hours later)
WASHINGTON — President Trump used the power of his office to try to get Ukraine to interfere in the 2020 election to investigate a political rival “for personal gain,” according to an explosive whistle-blower complaint released on Thursday after days of damning revelations about Mr. Trump’s dealings with Ukraine. WASHINGTON — After hearing President Trump tried to persuade Ukraine to investigate a 2020 campaign rival, senior officials at the White House scrambled to “lock down” records of the call, in particular the official complete transcript, a whistle-blower alleged in an explosive complaint released Thursday.
Attorney General William P. Barr and the president’s personal attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani were central to the effort, the complaint said. In an attempt to “lock down” all records of the call, White House lawyers told officials to move an electronic transcript of the call into a separate system reserved for classified information that is especially sensitive, the complaint said. During the call, Mr. Trump pressured President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine to investigate a political rival, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.
In addition, the complaint says that whistle-blower, an unidentified intelligence officer, learned from multiple American officials that “senior White House officials had intervened to ‘lock down’ all records of the phone call, especially the official word-for-word transcript of the call that was produced as is customary by the White House Situation Room.” The president’s personal lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, and Attorney General William P. Barr were involved in the effort as well, the complaint said.
These and other details surrounding the call were “deeply disturbing” to senior White House officials, according to the complaint. A day earlier, the White House released a reconstructed transcript of the July 25 call.
The whistle-blower, an unnamed intelligence official, did not personally witness the actions, but heard accounts from multiple American officials.
“This set of actions underscored to me that White House officials understood the gravity of what had transpired in the call,” the complaint said.“This set of actions underscored to me that White House officials understood the gravity of what had transpired in the call,” the complaint said.
The whistle-blower’s complaint was based on accounts from multiple White House officials who were “deeply disturbed” by what they heard on the call, the complaint said. The complaint, grippingly written to detail a pattern of behavior by Mr. Trump and his administration, was particularly damning given Mr. Trump’s long record of dismissing the intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to benefit him. House Democrats took steps to impeach Mr. Trump before the contents of the call and complaint were disclosed.
[Our Washington reporters answer readers’ questions on the impeachment inquiry, and what may come next.] The White House on Thursday dismissed the whistle-blower’s allegations, with Stephanie Grisham, the press secretary, describing it as “nothing more than a collection of third-hand accounts of events and cobbled-together press clippings — all of which shows nothing improper.”
“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,” the whistle-blower wrote in the complaint. Ms. Grisham said the president had been open and transparent about the call. “That is because he has nothing to hide,” she said.
The complainant asserted that multiple officials said a subsequent meeting or phone call between Mr. Trump and Mr. Zelensky would depend on whether the Ukrainian president was willing to “play ball” on investigating former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his son, Hunter Biden, and other matters. Mr. Trump himself also dismissed the allegations that he acted improperly.
The whistle-blower said the White House officials who relayed the details of the call to the whistle-blower were “deeply disturbed.” In the complaint, the whistle-blower wrote that the unusual handling of the call was deliberate.
Members of the House and Senate intelligence committees and a group of senior lawmakers from both parties, including Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, were permitted to review the classified complaint on Wednesday, just hours after the White House released a reconstructed transcript of a July 25 call between Mr. Trump and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine. During the call, about the country’s need for more American financial aid, Mr. Trump urged Mr. Zelensky to pursue an investigation into Mr. Biden. “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,” the whistle-blower wrote.
The unclassified version was released ahead of a House Intelligence Committee hearing where the acting director of National Intelligence, Joseph Maguire is scheduled to testify. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence provided lawmakers with an unclassified version of the whistle-blower complaint so that it could be discussed in the open hearing.
Though the reconstructed transcript of the call has been released, the complaint, filed in August by an intelligence official, contains more details than the phone call, including the details about White House officials who may have witnessed presidential misconduct and other actions. White House officials had told the whistle-blower that this was “not the first time” that a presidential transcript had been placed into the secret system “solely for the purpose of protecting politically sensitive — rather than national security sensitive — information.”
“Namely, he sought to pressure the Ukrainian leader to take actions to help the President’s 2020 reelection bid,” the complaint said. Days before Mr. Trump spoke with Mr. Zelensky, the president blocked a $391 million military aid package to Ukraine — a decision that officials from Office of Management and Budget or the National Security Council did not know about or understand.
Multiple officials said a subsequent meeting or phone call between Mr. Trump and Mr. Zelensky would depend on whether the Ukrainian president was willing to “play ball” on investigating Mr. Biden, his younger son, Hunter Biden, and other matters, according to the complaint. Mr. Biden is a leading candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination.
“Namely, he sought to pressure the Ukrainian leader to take actions to help the President’s 2020 re-election bid,” the complaint said.
The United States is a critical partner for Ukraine, which has faced years of Russian aggression that in 2014 culminated in the Kremlin’s annexation of Crimea, which was condemned internationally.
Members of the House and Senate intelligence committees and a group of senior lawmakers from both parties, including Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, were permitted to review the classified complaint late Wednesday, just hours after the White House released a reconstructed transcript of a July 25 call between Mr. Trump and Mr. Zelensky.
The unclassified version of the complaint was released ahead of a House Intelligence Committee hearing where the acting director of national intelligence, Joseph Maguire, testified Thursday morning.
Hours after the release of the transcript Wednesday, Mr. Trump and Mr. Zelensky met on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Speaking together to reporters, Mr. Zelensky joked that a date had yet to be set for the two men to meet in Washington.
House Democrats have said that Mr. Trump violated his oath of office when he pressured a foreign leader to investigate one of his political rivals. The White House initially refused to provide Congress with the complaint or to reveal what was said on the call. After Democrats took the first steps to impeach Mr. Trump, the administration disclosed details of the call and shared the classified complaint with lawmakers.House Democrats have said that Mr. Trump violated his oath of office when he pressured a foreign leader to investigate one of his political rivals. The White House initially refused to provide Congress with the complaint or to reveal what was said on the call. After Democrats took the first steps to impeach Mr. Trump, the administration disclosed details of the call and shared the classified complaint with lawmakers.
The allegations it contained were “deeply disturbing” and “very credible,” Representative Adam B. Schiff, Democrat of California and the chairman of the Intelligence Committee, said Wednesday after reviewing the complaint. “There is nothing the president says here that is in America’s interest,” Representative Adam B. Schiff, Democrat of California and the chairman of the Intelligence Committee, said at the start of the hearing on Thursday. “It is instead the most consequential form of tragedy, for it forces us to confront the remedy the founders provided for such a flagrant abuse of office, impeachment.”
Mr. Trump has dismissed the allegations that he acted improperly. Early Thursday morning, the president was busy sharing on Twitter praise from some of his allies and issued his own view: During the hearing, Mr. Maguire said, “I believe everything here in this matter is totally unprecedented.”
Most Republican lawmakers and allies of the president did not break with Mr. Trump after the contents of the July 25 phone conversation were made public. A large part of the whistle blower’s complaint focuses on the activities of Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer, Mr. Giuliani, and his contacts with Ukrainian officials. In citing mostly public news reports, the whistle-blower said that Mr. Giuliani was pressing Ukrainian officials to investigate Mr. Biden, and his family — an allegation Mr. Giuliani has both denied and enthusiastically defended.
“If you are underwhelmed by this transcript, you are not alone or ‘crazy,’” Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, said in a Twitter post on Wednesday. Mr. Graham served as a House prosecutor during the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton in 1999. “Those willing to impeach the president over this transcript have shown their hatred for @realDonaldTrump overrides reason.” Mr. Giuliani has led the effort to push the Ukrainians to pursue an investigation into the Bidens and met with some Mr. Zelensky’s representatives over the summer.
Mr. Graham is not a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee and would not have been among the lawmakers permitted to see the full classified complaint on Wednesday. Reporting was contributed by Nicholas Fandos, Maggie Haberman and Michael D. Shear.
Nicholas Fandos contributed reporting.