The anonymous whistleblower complaint has been declassified by the House Intelligence Committee and was released to the public Thursday morning after select members of Congress reviewed the report Wednesday night.
The complaint chronicles accusations of President Donald Trump conspiring with a foreign leader to interfere with U.S. elections, mirroring charges made three years ago against Trump, alleging he worked with Russia to defeat Hillary Clinton in 2016, allegations that were later shown to be no more than a conspiracy theory.
The declassified whistleblower document reveals that White House officials attempted to “lock down” the details of a July phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in which Trump suggested Ukraine investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter for their dealings with a Ukrainian energy company to weed out corruption in the country. While he was vice president, Biden played a role in firing the Ukrainian prosecutor for going after the company whose board Hunter sat on for $50,000 a month.
The first page of the complaint also notes that the whistleblower “was not a direct witness to most of the events described” in the memo, basing each claim on hearsay.
White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said Thursday that the newly released complaint “is nothing more than a collection of third-hand accounts of events and cobbled-together press clippings — all of which shows nothing improper.”
“The White House will continue to push back on the hysteria and false narratives being peddled by Democrats and many in the mainstream media, and President Trump will continue to work hard on behalf of the American people as he always does,” said Grisham.
Democrats, however, are charging that the complaint, which was determined to be both “credible” and “urgent” by the intelligence inspector general but not by officials at the Department of National Intelligence, incriminates Trump and adds fuel to calls for impeachment. Many Democrats previously opposed to beginning impeachment proceedings, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., came out in favor of impeachment early this week, even before the transcript of the phone call was made public.
On Wednesday, the White House released the fully declassified and unredacted transcript of the July phone call in question, detailing the conversation between the two world leaders and showing no quid pro quo for an investigation as speculated by many in the media.
Read the full unclassified whistleblower complaint here.
