After reviewing the anonymous whistleblower complaint that reportedly centers on President Trump and Ukraine on Wednesday, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) said that it exposed “serious wrongdoing,”
Calling it “well-written,” Schiff thanked the whistleblower and indicated the complaint was urgent.
“What this courageous individual has done has exposed serious wrongdoing, and I think it a travesty that this complaint was withheld as long as it was, because it was an urgent matter, it is an urgent matter,” he told reporters.
The acting director of national intelligence, Joseph Maguire, received the complaint weeks ago but kept it from Congress citing a Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel opinion that it was not an “urgent matter” and therefore not necessary to give to congressional intelligence committees.
“There was simply no basis to keep this from the committee,” Schiff said. “And the idea that the Department of Justice would have intervened to prevent it from getting to Congress throws the leadership of that department into further ill repute.”
The complaint reportedly centers on a July 25 phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. In a memorandum of the exchange released by the White House Wednesday, Trump is shown repeatedly pressuring Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, among other matters.
