Washington: The White House has claimed the intelligence whistleblower’s complaint about President Donald Trump’s efforts to seek dirt from Ukraine on former vice-president Joe Biden ‘shows nothing improper’.
Press secretary Stephanie Grisham has said that the complaint ‘is nothing more than a collection of third-hand accounts of events and cobbled-together press clippings’. She asserted that Donald Trump released Wednesday a rough transcript of his call with Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy ‘because he has nothing to hide’.
House Democrats who have read the document say it’s ‘deeply disturbing’.
Reacting to the statement Grisham has said that the White House will continue to back Trump.”The White House will continue to push back on the hysteria and false narratives being peddled by Democrats and many in the main stream media,” Grisham said
The intelligence whistleblower’s complaint at the centre of Democrats’ impeachment probe into President Donald Trump raises concerns about lawyer Rudy Giuliani’s role in seeking assistance from Ukraine to benefit the president’s 2020 re-election campaign. Giuliani had publicly stated his intention to secure from Ukraine derogatory information about former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
The complaint also details concerns from US. officials about ‘Rudy Giuliani’s circumvention of national security decision-making processes’.
The House Intelligence Committee has released a redacted version of a whistleblower complaint at the centre of the impeachment probe.
Lawmakers began reviewing a classified version of the complaint Wednesday evening ahead of testimony Thursday morning by acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire. He is set to speak publicly for the first time about the whistleblower complaint.
AP