Trump news: Intel chief admits Ukraine whistleblower complaint ‘unprecedented’ as details reveal White House tried to hide phone call record

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Trump uses UN setting to attack critics in rambling speech: 'How can they impeach for that?'

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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Key Points

• Members of congress see 'deeply disturbing' whistleblower complaint
• A brief synopsis of what went down in the House Intelligence Committee this morning
• 'Multiple aides' helped pressure Ukraine to investigate Biden, complaint reveals
• White House should not have released transcript of call, says Ukraine president

[26 September 2019 17:06 · Clark Mindock]

"Chairman the horse has left the barn," Mr Maguire says amid questioning about his decision not to disclose the complaint earlier — noting that the committee now has the whistleblower complaint, the readout of the phone call, and other documents.

[26 September 2019 17:08 · Clark Mindock]

Mr Maguire says that the complaint does not involve "election interference".

As he makes this claim, Mr Schiff cuts him off and says that the conversation itself was about "election interference".

[26 September 2019 17:23 · Clark Mindock]

"This is democracy. This is democracy," Mr Schiff says concluding the open testimony regarding the whistleblower allegations.

Mr Schiff was making the point that Mr Trump breaking the law and using the force of the American government to pressure the Ukrainian president is not the Democracy envisioned by America's founding fathers.

But, the messy nature of what is taking place now in Congress is, in fact, democracy, he said.

[26 September 2019 17:30 · Clark Mindock]

From the final moments of the hearing this morning:

[26 September 2019 17:45 · Clark Mindock]

With the hearing now over, here are some key highlights from this morning's testimony from the acting director of national security.

•Mr Maguire called the case they were discussing was "unique and unprecedented" compared to other whistleblower complaints he has known before. Because of that unique nature, Mr Maguire said he did not immediately hand over the complaint to Congress.

•Democrats, meanwhile, questioned the motive behind that decision anyhow. Mr Maguire said that the complaint details were credible — but refused to say that the issue should be investigated.

•Mr Maguire admitted that the text supplied by the White House was consistent to the information in the whistleblower complaint. 

•The acting spy chief said that the conversation between Mr Trump and the Ukrainian president was the type of conversation that is "typically subject to executive privilege."

[26 September 2019 18:00 · Clark Mindock]

In case you missed our write up on the latest comments out of Ukraine:

[26 September 2019 18:15 · Clark Mindock]

Here are the president's tweets from the past hour or so:

[26 September 2019 18:30 · Clark Mindock]

BREAKING: 

[26 September 2019 18:45 · Clark Mindock]

[26 September 2019 19:00 · Clark Mindock]

From Reuters: 

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Thursday that the United States had concluded the government of President Bashir al-Assad in Syria had used chlorine as a chemical weapon in a May attack as part of its battle for Idlib.

"The Assad regime is responsible for innumerable atrocities some of which rise to the level of war crimes and crimes against humanity," Pompeo told a news conference. "Today I am announcing that the United States has concluded that the Assad regime used chlorine as a chemical weapon on May 19."