washington post trump tries to force ukraine to meddle in the 2020 election

Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the top House Democrat, said: “Reports of a reliable whistleblower complaint regarding the president’s communications with a foreign leader raise grave, urgent concerns for our national security.” But during a three-hour closed-door briefing on Thursday, Atkinson told the House intelligence committee the acting director of national intelligence, Joseph Maguire, a Trump appointee, barred him from providing details. The whistleblower filed it with the inspector general of the intelligence community, Michael Atkinson, who acknowledged that he considered it a credible matter of “urgent concern” that merited notifying congressional committees. Trump also said he did not know if the phone call with Zelenskiy – a comedian and political novice elected in May – was the subject of the complaint, now caught in a standoff between the White House and Congress.

He told reporters in the Oval Office it was “a ridiculous story” and “just another political hack job” and his conversations with foreign leaders were “totally appropriate”.Īsked if he discussed Biden, Trump insisted: “It doesn’t matter what I discussed.” But he added “someone ought to look into” Biden, who is currently leading polls for the Democratic nomination in 2020. Trump offered a characteristically pugnacious defence against what he called a “partisan” whistleblower. This behavior is particularly abhorrent because it exploits the foreign policy of our country and undermines our national security for political purposes.” He urged Trump to “immediately release the transcript of the call in question, so that the American people can judge for themselves”. In a statement, Biden, the former vice-president, said: “If these reports are true, then there is truly no bottom to President Trump’s willingness to abuse his power and abase our country. The former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, a lawyer for Trump, told the Journal he met top Ukrainian officials about the prospect of an investigation in June and August. Trump did not raise the issue of US aid to Ukraine, indicating there was not an explicit quid pro quo, a source told the Associated Press. Other media outlets confirmed that Trump had pushed Zelenskiy to take action. In the July phone call, Trump urged Zelenskiy about eight times to work with Giuliani on the investigation, the Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter. On Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump repeatedly pressured Zelenskiy to investigate Biden’s son, Hunter. Trump spoke to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, on 25 July, about two weeks before the complaint was filed.

Washington post trump tries to force ukraine to meddle in the 2020 election