Q&A on Intelligence Community Whistleblower
Update, Sept. 26: The House intelligence committee released a redacted version of the whistleblower complaint on Sept. 26, and the White House released a memo of the call on Sept. 25. Our story has been updated to reflect some of the information contained in those documents.
A whistleblower on Aug. 12 filed a complaint with the inspector general of the intelligence community, who found the information credible and determined that under the law it should be forwarded to the congressional intelligence committees.
As first reported by the Wall Street Journal and other media outlets, the complaint alleges that President Donald Trump during a July phone call pressed Volodymyr Zelensky, the newly elected Ukrainian president, to investigate Hunter Biden — the son of former Vice President Joe Biden. Trump also confirmed media reports that he was withholding congressionally appropriated security assistance funding to Ukraine at the time of the call.
“In the course of my official duties, I have received information from multiple U.S. Government officials that the President of the United States is using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election,” the whistleblower complaint reads. “This interference includes, among other things, pressuring a foreign country to investigate one of the President’s main domestic political rivals. The President’s personal lawyer, Mr. Rudolph Giuliani, is a central figure in this effort. Attorney General Barr appears to be involved as well.”
Trump denies doing anything inappropriate, describing the phone call as “absolutely perfect” and “beautiful,” while at the same time saying that he did talk to Zelensky about corruption.
Here we present what we know and don’t know about the whistleblower complaint so far.
When did Trump speak with the president of Ukraine, and what was discussed?
The two leaders spoke on July 25. Trump called to congratulate Zelensky on his recent election victory. In a statement released that day, Ukraine’s office of the president said Trump expressed hope that Ukraine can “complete investigation of corruption cases, which inhibited the interaction between Ukraine and the USA.”
The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump “repeatedly pressured the president of Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden’s son, according to people familiar with the matter, urging Volodymyr Zelensky about eight times to work with [Trump’s personal attorney] Rudy Giuliani on a probe that could hamper Mr. Trump’s potential 2020 opponent.”
On Sept. 22, Trump told reporters that it was a “great conversation,” and seemingly confirmed that Biden’s name came up. “The conversation I had was largely congratulatory,” Trump said. “It was largely corruption — all of the corruption taking place. It was largely the fact that we don’t want our people, like Vice President Biden and his son, creating to the corruption already in the Ukraine.”
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko denied that Trump used the congratulatory phone call to pressure Zelensky to investigate the Bidens. “I know what the conversation was about and I think there was no pressure,” Prystaiko said in an interview with the media outlet Hromadske,.
