President Donald Trump suggested that the government whistleblower who filed a complaint about his communication with a foreign leader was a "partisan" Democrat despite not actually knowing who the person is.
Trump was meeting with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Friday in the Oval Office when he discussed the whistleblower's allegations with reporters. The president called the entire situation a "political hack job" and a "ridiculous story."
"It's a partisan whistleblower," Trump claimed. "They shouldn't even have information. I've had conversations with many leaders. They're always appropriate."
The president then added that "I don't know the identity of the whistleblower. I just hear it's a partisan person, meaning it comes out from another party."
The whistleblower complaint has triggered a standoff between the Trump administration and Congress as Democratic lawmakers argue that the White House is breaking the law by not turning over the information.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stepped into the fray on Friday and called for the director of national intelligence to "uphold the law" and provide Congress with all the relevant details.
"Well, the law says that the DNI should send the information, shall, not should, shall send that information to Congress," Pelosi told CNN. "So the law is the law. So, we just have to uphold the law."
The whistleblower complaint was first revealed by The Washington Post on Wednesday. The paper reported that an official in the intelligence community was so troubled by a "promise" Trump made to a foreign leader that they decided to file a formal complaint with the inspector general. The report provided zero details about what the communication was about or what country the official was from.
The inspector general deemed the complaint credible and opened an inquiry, but the Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire has so far refused to share details about the complaint with Congress.
It was then reported by both the Post and the New York Times on Thursday that the whistleblower complaint was about Trump's talks with Ukraine. Some of the president's top supporters, including his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, have pressed the Ukranian government to open investigations into political rivals like Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton.
Giuliani admitted to CNN host Chris Cuomo on Thursday night that he "of course" he asked Ukranian officials to investigate Biden. The confession came a mere 30 seconds after he told the CNN host that he never asked them to do such a thing.
Trump ripped the media for publishing reports on the whistleblower in a series of tweets on Friday morning. He claimed that the "Radical Left Democrats and their Fake News Media partners" were "at it again!"
"They think I may have had a 'dicey' conversation with a certain foreign leader based on a 'highly partisan' whistleblowers statement," he tweeted. "Strange that with so many other people hearing or knowing of the perfectly fine and respectful conversation, that they would not have also come forward."
Trump added: "Do you know the reason why they did not? Because there was nothing said wrong, it was pitch perfect!"
