White House 'Tried to Cover Up Details of Trump-Ukraine Call'
In
the call, Mr Trump pushed Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate his leading
domestic political rival, Joe Biden.
The newly
released complaint says the call transcript was not stored in the usual
computer system.
Instead
it was stored in a separate system used for classified information.
Nancy
Pelosi, the most senior Democrat, announced on Tuesday that the party was
pushing ahead with a formal impeachment inquiry against the Republican
president.
She
accused Mr Trump of seeking foreign help in the hope of smearing Mr Biden - who
is seeking the Democratic nomination for the 2020 presidential election - and
of using military aid to Ukraine as a bargaining tool.
Mr Trump
acknowledged that he personally blocked nearly $400m in military aid to Ukraine
days before he spoke to Mr Zelensky, but denied that it was to pressure the
Ukrainian leader into investigating Mr Biden.
The
release of the whistleblower complaint came as US lawmakers on the House of
Representatives intelligence committee began to question President Trump's top
intelligence official on the issue. Acting National Intelligence Director
Joseph Maguire had initially refused to share the complaint with Congress.
President
Trump has dismissed the impeachment proceedings as a "hoax" and a
"witch-hunt", and has been tweeting after the complaint was publicly
released.
But under
questioning by the House committee on Thursday, Mr Maguire said he believed the
whistleblower had acted in "good faith" and "did the right
thing".
The whistleblower's
complaint accuses Mr Trump of "using the power of his office to solicit
interference from a foreign country in the US 2020 election".
The
now unclassified document characterises the president's conduct as a
"serious or flagrant problem, abuse, or violation of law".
The alleged
violation concerns President Trump asking his Ukrainian counterpart on 25 July
this year to "do me a favour" by investigating unfounded allegations
against Mr Biden.
The
whistleblower says in the complaint that they had learned from several sources
that senior White House officials had intervened to "lock down" all
records of the call, particularly an official word-for-word transcript.
"This
set of actions underscored to me that White House officials understood the
gravity of what had transpired in the call," the whistleblower wrote in
the complaint.
The whistleblower
says details of the call were stored in a "stand-alone computer system
reserved for codeword-level intelligence information, such as covert
action".
The
whistleblower adds that officials said it was "'not the first time' under
this administration that a presidential transcript was placed into this
codeword-level system solely for the purpose of protecting politically
sensitive - rather than national security sensitive - information".
The
complaint makes clear that the whistleblower was "not a direct
witness" to most of the events described, but found their colleagues'
accounts to be credible "because, in almost all cases, multiple officials
recounted fact patterns that were consistent with one another".
The House
intelligence committee chairman Adam Schiff, a Democrat, opened the hearing by
accusing President Trump of a "classic organised crime shakedown".
But
the leading Republican on the committee, Devin Nunes, a Trump supporter, said:
"I want to congratulate the Democrats on their latest informational
warfare operation against the president and their extraordinary ability to once
again enlist the mainstream media in their campaign."
Mr
Schiff asked Mr Maguire why he had sought advice from the White House before
deciding to release the whistleblower's report.
"It
just seemed prudent to check," Mr Maguire responded, saying he had sought
the advice of White House counsel to determine if the report included
information protected by presidential executive privilege.
He
added: "I believe everything in this matter is totally
unprecedented."
During
further questioning by Mr Schiff, Mr Maguire said he believed the whistleblower
had acted in "good faith".
He
continued: "I think the whistleblower did the right thing. I think he
followed the law every step of the way."
During the call, Mr
Trump discussed with newly elected Mr Zelensky the 2016 removal of a Ukrainian
prosecutor, Viktor Shokin.
He
then went on to discuss Mr Biden's son, Hunter Biden, and the unsubstantiated
allegation that Mr Biden - then the US vice-president - stopped the prosecution
of his son by lobbying Ukraine to fire Mr Shokin.
Mr
Shokin's office had opened an investigation into Burisma, a natural gas company
on which Hunter Biden was a board member.
During
the call, Mr Trump also asked Mr Zelensky to work with US Attorney General
William Barr and Mr Trump's personal lawyer, Rudolph Giuliani, to look into the
matter.
There
is no evidence of any wrongdoing by the Bidens.
Mr Biden, along with
other Western officials, had called for Mr Shokin to be fired because of the
perception that he was soft on corruption.
When
Mr Shokin was replaced, his successor continued to investigate Burisma for 10
months before the inquiry ended.
The
Department of Justice said on Wednesday that Mr Trump had not spoken to the
attorney general about having Ukraine investigate Mr Biden, and Mr Barr had not
communicated with Ukraine.
How the
controversy unfolded
18 July - President Trump orders White House aide to hold
back almost $400m in military aid to Ukraine, report US media
25 July - President Trump speaks to Ukraine's leader in a
30-minute phone call
9 September - Congress learns of a whistleblower's complaint
about the call, but is blocked by the Trump administration from viewing it
11 September - Military aid for Ukraine is cleared for
release by the Pentagon and Department of State
23 September - Mr Trump confirms he withheld Ukrainian aid,
saying it was due to concerns about "corruption"
24 September - Mr Trump says the aid was withheld so that
other countries would pay more
FROM .bbc.com/news/world-us-canada
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