NYT: White House Tried to 'Lock Down' Ukraine Call Records, Whistle-Blower Says

Sept. 27, 2019

White House Tried to 'Lock Down' Ukraine Call Records, Whistle-Blower Says

The whistle-blower's complaint accused President Trump of trying to compel Ukraine's leader to help investigate a 2020 rival, and the White House of trying to "lock down" records of the call.

By Michael D. Shear

WASHINGTON -- Senior White House officials tried to "lock down" a record of President Trump's call with the leader of Ukraine in an attempted cover-up of Mr. Trump's efforts to compel an investigation of a Democratic rival, a whistle-blower alleged in an explosive complaint [1] released Thursday.

The whistle-blower -- a C.I.A. officer who once worked at the White House -- said in the complaint that White House officials moved a transcript of the July 25 call with the Ukrainian leader, Volodymyr Zelensky, [2] onto a secure, classified system in order to conceal actions by Mr. Trump that officials in his administration found "deeply disturbing."

In the complaint, the officer added details to what a reconstructed transcript of the call revealed about the interaction between the two leaders, asserting that government officials, including some at the White House, believed Mr. Trump had abused his power for personal political gain by pressuring Mr. Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his younger son, Hunter Biden.

The whistle-blower said diplomats were outraged by the activities of the president's personal lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, in trying to persuade Ukrainian officials to open an investigation into the Bidens.

The new revelations from the nine-page complaint, submitted to the inspector general of the intelligence community and released Thursday morning by the House Intelligence Committee, added to the political furor over the president's attempts to influence Mr. Zelensky.

Mr. Trump lashed out, denouncing the whistle-blower and the people who provided him information as treasonous spies and darkly hinting [3] that they should suffer the same punishment the United States "used to do in the old days when we were smart with spies and treason, right?"

Democrats seized on the complaint as a road map to Mr. Trump's eventual impeachment, saying they had decided its allegations would now be the primary focus of their effort to remove him from office. They described the whistle-blower as a hero whose bravery exposed presidential misconduct and revealed a conspiracy to manipulate the 2020 elections involving the president; Mr. Giuliani; and the attorney general, William P. Barr.

"We are at a different level of lawlessness," Speaker Nancy Pelosi said.

Some House Democrats said it was possible that lawmakers could have articles of impeachment drafted by the end of October.

By the whistle-blower's account, the highest officials of the United States and Ukraine have been caught up for months in a web of geopolitical intrigue and secrecy involving promises of foreign assistance, demands for political favors and evidence of election interference.

The complaint described shadowy diplomacy by Mr. Giuliani, and -- in the aftermath of the president's call with Mr. Zelensky on July 25 -- a plot inside the White House to hide evidence, which was "not the first time" that the White House had stowed the transcript of a call on a more secure server because of the political content of the conversation rather than its national security implications.

The accusations leveled -- that the president was "using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election" -- engulfed two continents amid growing alarm in the United States diplomatic corps and at the Pentagon about Mr. Trump's willingness to use his foreign policy authority for political purposes.

The whistle-blower's complaint was made public just as the House Intelligence Committee gaveled open its first congressional hearing since Tuesday, when Ms. Pelosi announced the beginning of the constitutional effort to force Mr. Trump from office.

Democratic lawmakers grilled Joseph Maguire, the acting director of national intelligence, on why he had refused to deliver the whistle-blower's complaint to Congress for nearly a month, rejecting the recommendations of the intelligence community's inspector general. Democrats also asked Mr. Maguire why he first consulted the White House and the Justice Department about the complaint before turning it over to Congress.

Mr. Maguire, a retired Navy vice admiral and former counterterrorism official, bristled at what he called attacks on his integrity. He defended the whistle-blower, who he said "followed the law every step of the way." But he declined to endorse Democratic suggestions that the president should be investigated or punished for his actions.

"My responsibility was to get you the whistle-blower letter and get the other information released," Mr. Maguire said. "I have done my duty."

Whether to investigate further "is on the shoulders of the legislative branch and this committee," he added.

As the revelations piled up, seemingly by the minute on Thursday, Republicans in Congress largely stood by their embattled president as they have done for almost three years. Representative Devin Nunes of California, the top Republican on the intelligence panel, accused Democrats of starting another "information warfare operation against the president," just like they fanned the flames of unsubstantiated "Russia hoax."

"They don't want answers," Mr. Nunes said. "They want a public spectacle."

Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the Republican leader, complained that the whistle-blower "has no primary sources," while others suggested he had a political agenda.

Stephanie Grisham, the White House press secretary, described it as "nothing more than a collection of thirdhand accounts of events and cobbled-together press clippings -- all of which shows nothing improper."

Ms. Grisham said the president had been open and transparent about the July 25 call. On Wednesday, the White House released a reconstructed transcript. [4] "That is because he has nothing to hide," she said.

The House Judiciary Committee, which has been the front edge of an impeachment push for months, is now expected to temporarily suspend public aspects of its investigation of obstruction of justice and abuse of power by Mr. Trump based on the findings of Robert S. Mueller III's report on Russian election interference in 2016 and the president's attempts to thwart it. Those issues could still be included in articles of impeachment, if or when they are drafted.

Ms. Pelosi did not offer a specific timeline for work on the inquiry, which could slow as lawmakers leave Washington this weekend for a two-week recess.

Representative Adam B. Schiff, the chairman of the Intelligence Committee, pledged to have his committee work through Congress's recess. At the top of his agenda, he said, is interviewing the whistle-blower and examining the roles of Mr. Giuliani and Mr. Barr.

"We want to know what role Rudy Giuliani had in all of this. We want to know what role Bill Barr had in any of this," Mr. Schiff said. "We want to know what Ukraine understood was expected of them before they even had this July phone call with the president of the United States."

C.I.A. officials on Thursday declined to answer questions about the whistle-blower's identity, and his lawyer declined to confirm the whistle-blower's affiliation with the C.I.A. But the complaint suggested that the whistle-blower was an analyst with expertise in European affairs and knowledge about Ukraine and its politics.

That expertise will most likely add to lawmakers' confidence about the merits of his complaint, and tamp down allegations that he might have misunderstood what he learned about Mr. Trump. He did not listen directly to a July call between Mr. Trump and Mr. Zelensky that is at the center of the political firestorm over the president's mixing of diplomacy with personal political gain.

People familiar with the whistle-blower's complaint said Thursday that the White House and the Justice Department had learned about the allegations being made by the officer even as his complaint was moving through the reporting process.

The intelligence officer initially shared his complaints anonymously with the C.I.A.'s top lawyer, who then shared the accusations of abuse of power with officials at the White House and the Justice Department. Around the same time, the officer filed his whistle-blower complaint.

In that document, the officer said that in addition to the White House officials who heard the call, a State Department counselor, T. Ulrich Brechbuhl, was listening in, as well. Mr. Brechbuhl is a longtime friend and former business partner of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's.

A former White House official said it was extremely unusual for a State Department official to be on what was supposed to be a standard congratulatory call from the president to another world leader, and Mr. Brechbuhl's participation was a sign of the intimate working relationship between Mr. Pompeo and Mr. Trump.

As details of the whistle-blower complaint have trickled out over the past week, Mr. Pompeo has dodged questions on whether he, too, encouraged Ukrainians to honor Mr. Trump's wish that they pursue investigations that could benefit him politically.

In a television interview on Sunday, Mr. Pompeo said he supported Mr. Giuliani's efforts with the Ukrainians. Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Mr. Pompeo said that to the best of his knowledge, "each of the actions that were taken by State Department officials was entirely appropriate."

Reporting was contributed by Nicholas Fandos, Maggie Haberman, Eileen Sullivan and Edward Wong.

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/09/26/us/politics/whistle-blower-complaint.html

[2] https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/25/us/politics/donald-trump-impeachment-probe.html

[3] https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/26/us/politics/trump-whistle-blower-spy.html

[4] https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/09/25/us/politics/trump-ukraine-transcript.html