Report: White House getting ready to release whistleblower complaint to Congress

(Image credit: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)

published 24 September 2019

The White House is planning on releasing the whistleblower complaint and subsequent report by the intelligence community's inspector general to Congress before the end of the week, a senior Trump administration official told Politico Tuesday evening.

The complaint triggered the House Democrats' impeachment inquiry, after acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire said he would not turn it over to Congress, as required by law. The official said Trump, who has called the inquiry "presidential harassment," approved the complaint's release.

Earlier Tuesday, Trump tweeted he authorized the release on Wednesday of the "complete, fully declassified, and unredacted transcript" of his July phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which is said to be the subject of the whistleblower's complaint. During the call, Trump asked Zelensky to investigate the business dealings of Hunter Biden, the son of former Vice President Joe Biden.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.