President Trump on Thursday ripped reports that he made a promise to a foreign leader so troubling that a whistleblower reported it to the intelligence community’s in-house watchdog — calling them “Fake News” and “Presidential Harassment!”
“Another Fake News story out there – It never ends! Virtually anytime I speak on the phone to a foreign leader, I understand that there may be many people listening from various US agencies, not to mention those from the other country itself. No problem!” Trump wrote in one of a series of three tweets.
“Knowing all of this, is anybody dumb enough to believe that I would say something inappropriate with a foreign leader while on such a potentially ‘heavily populated’ call. I would only do what is right anyway, and only do good for the USA!” he continued in his first public comments on the issue. “Presidential Harassment!”
The whistleblower’s complaint prompted a standoff between the intelligence community and Democrats in Congress, though details of the matter remained sketchy, including the identity of the foreign leader and the nature of the promise, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
Intelligence community Inspector General Michael Atkinson determined that the complaint was credible and troubling enough to be considered a matter of “urgent concern,” a legal threshold that requires notification of congressional oversight committees.
But the acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire has refused to share details about the complaint with lawmakers.
Maguire has defended his refusal by asserting that the subject of the complaint is beyond his jurisdiction, according to The Washington Post, which broke the story Wednesday.
Democratic House Intelligence Committee chair Adam Schiff has tried to force US intelligence officials to disclose the full details of the whistleblower complaint to Congress.
Atkinson appeared at a closed hearing of the committee on Thursday, and Maguire has agreed to testify before the panel in open session a week later, Schiff said in a statement.
But Atkinson on Thursday declined to discuss the substance of the whistleblower’s complaint.
Instead the appearance mainly involved a discussion of the process of investigating such complaints.