Whistleblower alleges White House coverup

House Democrats have warned President Trump to stop his “reprehensible witness intimidation” aimed at the whistleblower whose complaint document has triggered the escalating Ukraine scandal.

In a statement released this evening, Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff and, Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings addressed reports that Trump had referred to the people who gave the whistleblower information as “close to a spy” and said in the old days spies were dealt with differently.

The statement said Trump “is fully aware that our committees are seeking testimony from this whistleblower and others referenced in the whistleblower’s complaint released today as part of the House’s impeachment inquiry, and our nation’s laws prohibit efforts to discourage, intimidate, or otherwise pressure a witness not to provide testimony to Congress.”

“No officials with knowledge relevant to the committees’ investigation, including knowledge of the subject of the whistleblower complaint, may be subject to any intimidation, reprisal, or threat of reprisal, and all witnesses must be made available for congressional testimony,” they added.

Former congressman and Democratic presidential hopeful Beto O’Rourke urged the House of Representatives to move forward with the impeachment inquiry into President Trump.

O’Rourke told CNN’s Erin Burnett tonight that impeaching Trump would be “the only way that we get all the facts, the truth and justice at the end of the day.”

The House’s formal impeachment inquiry into President Trump is “about protecting our Constitution,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said at an event tonight.

The California Democrat went on to say that lawmakers “had no choice” but to launch the inquiry, saying it was not a political move.

“This is a very sad time for our country. I say this to you with great sorrow and prayerfully, that we are in a place that I hoped we would never be,” Pelosi said, speaking in Washington, DC,

She continued:

Kellyanne Conway defended President Trump’s conversation with the Ukrainian president and downplayed the impact of the investigation on the White House.

Conway also seemed to deny that the White House has a dedicated team working on the impeachment proceedings. “All this nonsense about war rooms, and special people running things… that’s just not true at the moment. There’s no current need to do that,” she said.

Conway insisted that the President cutting off funding for military aide to Ukraine had nothing to do with his request for “favors” from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

President Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani may have broken the law due to his involvement in the escalating Ukraine controversy, according to House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff.

Asked by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer tonight if he believed Giuliani was potentially criminally liable, Schiff said, “If Mr. Giuliani was involved in a scheme to coerce a foreign government into giving dirt, manufacturing dirt, on President Trump’s political opponent, then yes, that certainly can violate the law — violate the criminal laws.”

Schiff also believes the Justice Department will not investigate Giuliani.

Some background: The whistleblower complaint, which was released this morning, labels Giuliani as “central figure” in the controversy.

US officials were concerned, the whistleblower said, with Giuliani and his contacts with Ukrainian officials. The whistleblower alleges that US officials believed Giuliani was a conduit for messages between the President and officials in Kyiv and that he was at the helm of a problematic “circumvention of national security decision making processes.”

Speaking to CNN today, Giuliani said he has “no knowledge of any of that crap” in the complaint. Earlier this month, Giuliani denied asking Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden moments before admitting that he had done just that.

There is no evidence of wrongdoing by either Joe or Hunter Biden.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr said today his members “will carry out its jurisdictional responsibilities” to investigate allegations from an intelligence community whistleblower against President Trump. 

Burr said acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire and Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson were “extremely forthcoming” when they met with his committee behind closed-doors for several hours. 

Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the committee, said it’s been a “rollicking week,” but that the intelligence panel “could take an extraordinarily serious issue in a bipartisan way.”

Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican of Maine, said the hearing was a “worthwhile discussion” and “there are obviously a lot of questions” coming out of it.  

She also defended the whistleblower who Trump suggested was a spy against the US.

Sen. Roy Blunt, a Republican of Missouri and another member of the committee, said he has not drawn any conclusions about the whistleblower’s charges. 

“We’re committed to gather the information before we reach conclusions. Other people who don’t have this responsibility can reach conclusions right away,” Blunt said. “In my case I’m not ready to make any conclusions yet and still ready to gather more information.”

US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, center, is pictured in Kiev, Ukraine, on March 6, 2019. 

Diplomats are rallying their support of former US ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch after the release of a whistleblower complaint shed further light on the circumstances of her unexpected removal.

The allegations raised in the complaint, in combination with President Trump’s comments about the diplomat revealed in the White House transcript of a call between Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart, lend further credence to the claim that Yovanovitch’s removal from her post last May was politically motivated.

Two major groups representing the diplomatic community issued statements today. Here’s what they said:

In his strongest comment yet on the Ukraine controversy, former Vice President Joe Biden, a Democratic presidential candidate, claimed President Trump was trying to “hijack an election” by asking Ukraine for help.

At a fundraising reception in San Marino, California, Biden told donors, “He’d like to get foreign help to win elections.”

What we know: A rough transcript of the conversation released by the White House shows Trump repeatedly pushed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Biden and his son, Hunter, during a phone call on July 25.

President Trump’s acknowledgment that he discussed former Vice President Joe Biden in a July call with Ukraine’s president has intensified scrutiny on his interactions and decisions on Ukraine.

The growing controversy stems from a whistleblower complaint that deals, at least in part, with a phone call Trump had with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on July 25.

A transcript of the conversation released by the White House shows Trump repeatedly pushed Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter.

There is no evidence of wrongdoing by either Joe or Hunter Biden

Here’s a timeline of the major developments surrounding the Ukraine controversy:

In this file photo, Rep. Angie Craig speaks at a news conference on Jan. 29, 2019 in Washington, DC.

Vulnerable Democrats privately met with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to air out their views about the impeachment process, with some still resistant to the notion about impeaching President Trump.

Several members made clear their views to keep the probe focused on the Ukraine matter — and not the other allegations of wrongdoing detailed in the Mueller report.

Rep. Angie Craig, a vulnerable freshman Democrat from Minnesota, said Pelosi and Democratic leaders mostly listened to the views raised by the lawmakers.

“I’m in a district where I’ve been reluctant to move forward only from the perspective where I want to be disciplined, I want to look at due process and want to make sure we get all of our facts — and this process will allow us to do that,” Craig said, adding she backed a narrow probe led by the House Intelligence Committee.

Rep. Matt Cartwright, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, told CNN that he wouldn’t — at this point — vote for articles of impeachment.

Rep. Anthony Brindisi, a freshman from New York, who has resisted calls for an impeachment probe, told CNN that he’s “not yet” there on impeaching Trump.

“I think that while I find many of the statements in the whistleblower’s report disturbing there’s a lot more information that’s out there,” Brindisi said. “I think we have to talk to some of these officials that they have listed in the report here and see where it goes.”

The White House does not know identity of the whistleblower, and that includes President Trump. 

Why this matters: The president has continued to attack the whistleblower even though he does not know the individual’s identity. Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire also said today that he did not know the identity.

Tomorrow will mark the 200th day without a White House briefing.

Here’s why this is significant: The occasion is especially notable as questions surround the White House on the whistleblower’s complaint and calls for impeachment. 

Press secretary Stephanie Grisham has yet to take to the briefing room podium since she was named to the position on June 26. The lack in briefings was long a problem in the Trump White House before Grisham. Former press secretary Sarah Sanders also allowed the briefings to wane under her tenure. 

In both the Grisham and Sanders eras, the length of time between briefings is longer than any of the preceding 13 press secretaries, according to the American Presidency Project… 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has tasked the Intelligence Committee to take the lead on the impeachment inquiry into President Trump, telling her colleagues that the probe will be focused on allegations that he asked the leader of Ukraine to initiate an investigation that could have benefited his reelection, according to sources involved in the conversations.

Democrats no longer plan to make the findings of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report into potential obstruction of justice central to their impeachment push, which has been under review by the House Judiciary Committee, though Pelosi has told Democrats that the probe into those and other matters will continue.

The focus, however, will be squarely on the whistleblower allegations of wrongdoing by the President, as Democrats push to rapidly move forward on formal articles of impeachment as soon as this fall.

The decision to make the House Intelligence Committee the lead is a shift from how Pelosi characterized the strategy earlier this week when she said the probe would be done by six committees under the “umbrella” of an impeachment inquiry. The initial description led to some confusion among members about how the investigation would take shape.

The process is now expected to play out like this: The House Intelligence Committee will continue with its probe but the House Judiciary Committee will vote on the articles of impeachment before the full House takes up the matter.

Rep. Jason Crow, a freshmen Democrat from Colorado, spoke with CNN’s Jake Tapper this afternoon about an op-ed he co-signed that calls for impeachment hearings for President Trump.

Crow called the investigation into the whistleblower complaint and Ukraine an “ongoing national security issue.”

President Trump in the past has railed against employees who leak information to the media — calling them “traitors and cowards.”

But the whistleblower went through established channels — and did not leak.

Why whistleblowing isn’t the same as leaking: The Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989 protects federal government employees who report violations of the law and other abuses. The act prevents federal agencies from retaliating against employees who report that information.

As acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire repeated throughout his testimony this morning, the anonymous whistleblower who made a complaint about Trump’s call with the President of Ukraine did “everything by the book and followed the law.”

The whistleblower registered a formal complaint with Sen. Richard Burr and Rep. Adam Schiff — in sharp contrast to Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who leaked a trove of classified documents about a US government program of mass surveillance in 2013.

So why wasn’t the complaint released sooner? The Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection Act of 1998 requires that, if the Inspector General determines that the complaint is credible and of urgent concern, then the DNI “shall, within 7 calendar days…forward such transmittal to the intelligence.”

Maguire said that because the complaint involved the President — and executive privilege kept him from releasing it earlier.

The cybersecurity company CrowdStrike, which has been at the center of false conspiracy theories since 2016, is once again in focus after a White House transcript published on Wednesday revealed President Trump brought it up in his July call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

In a complaint released today by the intelligence community, a whistleblower expressed confusion about Trump’s references to the company.

Here’s what we know about the company:

Keep reading about Crowdstrike here.

President Trump said that whomever provided the whistleblower with information about his call with the Ukrainian president is “close to a spy” and added that in the old days spies were dealt with differently, according to two sources who were in the room and one person who knew someone in the room.

His remarks were first reported by the New York Times. 

One source said the remarks were “shocking” and “eerie” especially because the audience was filled with career foreign service officers who work at the UN. Other top US government officials were in the room as well, including Kelly Craft, the new US Ambassador to the UN.

Not everyone in the room opposed Trump’s comments: Employees from the US Mission to the United Nations could invite their friends or family to the event and most of the people who accepted such an invite were Trump supporters who were not startled by Trump’s threatening tone, another source said. 

Sen. Mitch McConnell walked on in silence as he walked past reporters this afternoon.

McConnell did not engage when asked if he’s concerned the whistleblower alleged Trump sought help from a foreign power to interfere in the 2020 elections.

He also did not respond when asked if he’s concerned that the White House allegedly sought to conceal the president’s conversations and if he has any concerns with Trump asking the Ukraine president to talk to his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani.

If you are just dropping in, it’s been a busy week in Washington. On Tuesday, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced the House is launching a formal impeachment inquiry into President Trump after news of a whistleblower’s complaint surfaced.

Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire is sworn in for testimony.

Here’s how the story has developed today:

A whistleblower’s complaint, which contains allegations about President Trump’s conduct, is at the center of a controversy that has spurred Democrats to launch a formal impeachment inquiry.

But few details are known about the whistleblower who penned the complaint.

Here’s what we know so far about the whistleblower: