Trump news: Intel chief admits Ukraine whistleblower complaint ‘unprecedented’ as details reveal White House tried to hide phone call record
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A whistleblower complaint alleging Donald Trump sought to pressure the president of Ukraine in an official government call to investigate a key political rival has been made public, just days after the House opened a formal impeachment hearing against the president over those claims.
A redacted version of the document – which Democrats have described as “explosive” and “deeply disturbing” – was made public Thursday morning, and claims that the White House may have regularly moved records of the president’s calls into a keyword classified database for political reasons, instead of serious national security concerns.
Acting national intelligence director Joseph Maguire has testified to the House Intelligence Committee about his handling of the complaint, and has called the situation “unprecedented”.
As the impeachment calls have grown, polls show that the American people are hearing the message, with a significant growth in the number of Americans who say they support the measure since this weekend, according to Morning Consult.
Mr Trump has maintained that the whole thing is a witch hunt intended to undermine his presidency, and it appears as though the president can rely on his Republican colleagues in the Senate to thwart any effort to remove him from office — at least for now.
Elsewhere, the offices of Bernie Sanders were evacuated on Thursday afternoon after a suspicious package was found in Vermont. It was not immediately clear what the package was.
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"Speak truth. But know truth. And believe me I am very prayerful about this. This is a heavy decision to go down this path. For some people it was easier, they thought these transgressions to be more self evident. I thought we needed more facts", Ms Pelosi says.
"We are at a different level of lawlessness that is self-evident to the American people," Ms Pelosi says.
Ms Pelosi says that Mr Trump believes that his "lawlessness" is "a virtue".
Ms Pelosi notes that the latest scandal broke publically on 17 September — a day known as "Constitution Day" in the United States, when the country celebrates the document that she says Mr Trump betrayed.
Ms Pelosi has concluded her press conference, and walked out to shouted questions on whether she is considering establishing a select committee for the impeachment inquiry.
She did not answer.
Senator Chuck Schumer on the Senate floor this morning:
Mr Maguire, responding to Democratic congressman Joaquin Castro, says that the whistleblower complaint and the readout of the call provided by the White House are very similar.
The statement comes just after congressman Mike Turner, a Republican, said they are markedly different.
"The whistleblower's complaint is in alignment with what was released yesterday by the president," Mr Maguire says.
A recent comment from a former aid to John McCain and Mitt Romney, puts the broader perspective on the House's decision to move forward on impeachment into focus.
The Senate likely won't vote to remove Mr Trump, but Republicans refusing to vote the president out could have major impacts, Mike Murphy tells MSNBC.
"I'm telling you -- these Senate Republicans, should the Democrats vote impeachment… are going to be pinned down to a yes-no answer,” Mr Murphy said. “And if they provide cover for Donald Trump for this, a clear violation of his role as president, we’re going to lose Colorado with Cory Gardner. We’re going to lose Maine with Susan Collins. We’re going to lose Arizona with Martha McSally. And the Democrats will put the Senate very much in play.”
The Washington Post reports that the former top prosecutor in Ukraine — whose allegations were a main concern of dirt digging efforts by Rudy Giuliani — says Hunter Biden did not break Ukrainian laws.
"From the perspective of Ukrainian legislation, he did not violate anything," Yuri Lutsenko told that newspaper in his first interview since the whistleblower complaint was disclosed publicly.
Reaction to the whistleblower complaint from senator John Cornyn — a top Republican in the Senate.
He does not mention that the complaint hews very closely to the readout of the call between Mr Trump and the Ukrainian president, which the White House provided.
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