National intelligence chief calls whistleblower’s complaint ‘unprecedented’

Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire said the whistleblower whose complaint about President Trump prodding his Ukrainian counterpart to launch an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden acted in “good faith.”

“First, I want to stress I believe the whistleblower and the inspector general have acted in good faith throughout,” Maguire told members of the House Intelligence Committee. “I have every reason to believe that they have done everything by the book and followed the law.”

Maguire, who was appointed last month to succeed outgoing director Dan Coats, also said he believes he properly handled the whistleblower’s complaint.

“I am not familiar with any prior instances where a whistleblower complaint touched on such complicated and sensitive issues, including executive privilege,” Maguire told members of the House panel. “I believe that this matter is unprecedented. I also believe that I handled this matter in full compliance with the law at all times.”

Earlier, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said Trump “betrayed his oath” when he prodded Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to launch an investigation into Biden and his son Hunter.

“Betrayed his oath to defend our national security and betrayed his oath to defend our Constitution,” Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said Thursday as he launched the hearing into the handling of the whistleblower’s complaint.

“If we do not defend the nation, there is no Constitution — but if we do not defend the Constitution, there is no nation worth defending,” Schiff said.

The House panel was grilling Maguire as the whistleblower’s complaint about Trump’s communication with Zelensky was released to the public.

Later Thursday, Maguire will testify during a closed session to the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Maguire’s testimony comes amid the House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry following the release of a transcript of the call that showed Trump asking Zelensky to launch an investigation into the Bidens.

“The other thing,” Trump said, according to the transcript of the 30-minute July 25 call. “There’s a lot of talk about Biden’s son. That Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the attorney general would be great.”

“Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it … It sounds horrible to me,” he said.

Zelensky assured Trump that he would look into the situation.

Trump has said his conversation with Zelensky was perfect and called for an investigation into the Bidens.

An unidentified member of the intelligence community filed the whistleblower complaint Aug. 12 with Michael Atkinson, inspector general of the intelligence community, flagging a “promise” Trump made to a foreign leader.

Atkinson, labeling the complaint of “urgent concern,” turned it over to Maguire.

But after consulting with the Department of Justice, Maguire refused to turn over the report to Congress.

Earlier this month, details of the complaint began appearing in news reports and identified the foreign leader as Zelensky.

The complaint was hand-delivered Wednesday to Capitol Hill, where lawmakers were given the opportunity to read the account.