Nancy Pelosi Calls Trump Administration Blocking Whistleblower Disclosure 'a Grave New Chapter of Lawlessness'
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi this weekend urged that the whistleblower complaint against President Donald Trump "must be addressed immediately" and condemned the president's administration for blocking its disclosure to lawmakers.
In a letter to members of Congress on Sunday, Pelosi noted that "the Intelligence Community Inspector General, who was appointed by President Trump, has determined that the complaint is both of 'urgent concern and credible,' and its disclosure 'relates to one of the most significant and important of the Director of National Intelligence's responsibilities to the American people.'"
"The Inspector General determined that the matter is 'urgent' and therefore we face an emergency that must be addressed immediately," she wrote.
The Trump administration has been accused of pressuring the newly-elected Ukrainian president to open a probe into the business dealings of presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden. Joe Biden is expected to win the 2020 Democratic nomination. Ukrainian officials have suggested the Trump administration could have withheld military aid after they declined to execute the investigation. An unidentified whistleblower subsequently filed an official complaint detailing their concerns over a phone call allegedly made between Trump and Ukraine.
During a closed-door briefing with House Intelligence Committee members Thursday, Intelligence Inspector General Michael Atkinson refused to allow lawmakers access to the complaint's contents.
Pelosi condemned the Trump administration for blocking Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire from providing Congress with the whistleblower complaint. "The Administration's blocking of Acting DNI Maguire from providing Congress with the whistleblower complaint calls upon him to violate the federal statute, which unequivocally states that the DNI 'shall' provide Congress this information," she wrote in the letter, adding that the move is "endangering our national security and having a chilling effect on any future whistleblower who sees wrongdoing."
If the Trump administration "persists in blocking this whistleblower from disclosing to Congress a serious possible breach of constitutional duties by the President, they will be entering a grave new chapter of lawlessness which will take us into a whole new stage of investigation," the Democratic leader said
Pelosi also called on Republicans to "join us" in insisting that Maguire "obey the law," rather than act in the interests of Trump. "We must be sure that the President and his Administration are always conducting our national security and foreign policy in the best interest of the American people, not the President's personal or political interest," she wrote.
Trump has argued that the allegations, like others previously levied against him, are merely "Witch Hunt schemes" aimed at smearing him. "Now that the Democrats and the Fake News Media have gone 'bust' on every other of their Witch Hunt schemes, they are trying to start one just as ridiculous as the others, call it the Ukraine Witch Hunt, while at the same time trying to protect Sleepy Joe Biden," the president tweeted on Saturday. "Will fail again!"
