Report: National security officials shared concerns over Trump and Ukraine prior to Zelensky call

Prior to President Trump's July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, at least four national security officials were so worried about the administration's Ukraine policy that they went to a White House lawyer to voice their concerns, several U.S. officials told The Washington Post.

They were disturbed by the abrupt removal of U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch in May, Rudy Giuliani's sharing of bizarre conspiracy theories about Ukraine, and suggestions that Trump wanted the Ukrainian government to give him material that could hurt former Vice President Joe Biden, the Post reports.

Officials said their worries doubled after Trump's call with Zelensky, with one person who had been listening to the conversation "immediately" going to National Security Council legal adviser John Eisenberg to talk to him about the matter. It is unclear if Eisenberg took any action before or after the phone call. Then-National Security Adviser John Bolton also fielded calls from anxious subordinates, who shared the problems they had with Trump's conversation, officials told the Post. Bolton quickly tried to get a rough transcript of the call, they added, which was moved to a computer network that holds highly sensitive classified material.

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A former senior official told the Post the people who were worried about Trump's Ukraine policy were "not a swamp, not a deep state," but rather "concerned about this because this is not the way they want to see the government run." Read more at The Washington Post.