drnadig/iStock(WASHINGTON) — Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire faced questions before the House and Senate Intelligence committees on Thursday about his handling of a whistleblower complaint that prompted House Democrats to launch a formal impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump.
Maguire did not transmit the complaint — centered on comments made by Trump to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in a July phone call — to Congress until Wednesday, though the Intelligence Community Inspector General considered it “credible” and of “urgent concern,” requiring reporting to Congress. But the acting director of national intelligence and the Justice Department blocked the inspector general from doing so, arguing that it did not meet the threshold requiring its transmission to lawmakers.
Here is how the hearing is unfolding:
9:37 a.m.
Maguire then explained that he blocked the complaint from being turned over to Congress — as Democrats say the law requires — after being advised by the White House of executive privilege concerns.
“Upon reviewing the complaint, we were immediately struck by the fact that many of the allegations in the complaint are based on a conversation between the president and another foreign leader. Such calls are typically subject to executive privilege,” Maguire said.
“As a result, we consulted with the White House counsel’s office and we were advised much of the information the complaint was in fact subject to executive privilege — a privilege that I do not have the authority to wave. Because of that, we were unable to immediately share the details of the complaint with this committee,” he said.
“After reviewing the complaint, and the inspector general’s transmittal letter, the office of legal counsel determined the complaint allegations do not meet requirement of urgent concern and found I was not legally required to transmit the material to our oversight committee under the whistleblower protect act,” Maguire continued. “I want to stress I believe the whistleblower and the inspector general have acted in good faith throughout. I have every reason to believe that they have done everything by the book and followed the law.”
9:26 a.m.
“Until a week ago, the need to protect that process was a primary bipartisan concern of this committee. If the Democrats were really concerned with defending that process, they would have pursued this meter with a quiet, sober inquiry as we do for all whistle-blowers. That would have been useless for them. They don’t want answers. They want a public spectacle,” Nunes said. “This latest gambit is unhinged and dangerous. They should end the dishonest spectacle and get back to work to solving problems, which is what every member of this committee was sent here to do.”
Acting DNI Maguire then began his opening statement.
“Before I turn to the matter of hand, there are a few things I would like to say. I am not partisan and I am not political,” he said. “Throughout my career, I have served and led through turbulent times. I have governed every action by the following criteria. It must be legal. It must be moral. And it must be ethical,” he said.
“In my nearly four decades of public service, my integrity has never been questioned until now. I am here today to state that as acting DNI, I will continue the same faithful and non-partisan support in a matter that adheres to the constitution and the laws of this great country,” Maguire said.
9:21 a.m.
The committee’s top Republican, Rep. Devin Nunes of California, blasted Democrats in his opening remarks.
“I want to congratulate the Democrats on the rollout of their latest information warfare operation against the president and their extraordinary ability to once again enlist the mainstream media in their campaign,” Nunes said.
“Once again, this supposed scandal ends up being nothing like what we were told and once again the Democrats, their media mouthpieces and leakers are ginning up a fake story with no regard to the monumental damage they are causing to our public institutions and to trust in government,” Nunes said.
9:20 a.m.
“It would be funny if it wasn’t such a graphic portrayal of the president’s oath of office. But as it does represent a real betrayal, there’s nothing the president says here that is in America’s interest after all. It is the most consequential form of tragedy,” Schiff continued.
“Although by means — no means — the only issue raised by the whistleblower’s complaint which was shared with the committee for the first time only late yesterday. By law, the whistleblower complaint, which brought this gross misconduct to light, should have been presented to this committee weeks ago and by you, Mr. Director, under the clear letter of the law. Yet it wasn’t,” Schiff said.
9:14 a.m.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., delivered a blistering opening statement referring to Wednesday’s release of a rough transcript of the call.
“Yesterday, we were presented with a most graphic evidence yet that the president of the united States has been betrayed his oath of office. Betrayed his oath to defend our national security and betrayed his oath to defend our Constitution,” he said. “For yesterday, we were presented with a record of a call between the president of the United State and the president of Ukraine in which the president — our president — sacrificed our national security and our Constitution for his personal political benefit.”
Lawmakers received access to the classified complaint on Wednesday after House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., had subpoenaed the DNI for the materials and after the Trump administration released a memorandum about the call between Trump and Zelenskiy. The memo is not verbatim.
“I found the allegations deeply disturbing and very credible,” Schiff said Wednesday night, after describing Trump’s call “far more damning than I or many others imagined.”
Democrats have launched a formal impeachment inquiry over the complaint and Trump’s comments during the phone call, in which he urged Zelenskiy to work with the Justice Department to investigate Joe Biden’s son Hunter and his business dealings in Ukraine when his father was vice president.
House Democratic leaders, led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, continued to organize their impeachment efforts behind closed doors on Wednesday, weighing the scope of their renewed impeachment investigation and whether it should encompass more than the complaint and Trump’s comments to the Ukrainian president, according to a Democrat familiar with the deliberations.
Many Republicans continued to defend the president on Wednesday after the release of the transcript, arguing that his comments to Zelenskiy and the call did not include a quid pro quo regarding the nearly $400 million in foreign aid that Trump had ordered his acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney to hold back ahead of the July phone call. They said Democrats were working to damage Trump politically in an effort to reverse the results of the last presidential election.
A few Republicans, including Sens. Mitt Romney of Utah and Ben Sasse of Nebraska, expressed concern with the details of Trump’s call. Romney described them as “deeply troubling.”
In a statement released Wednesday, Maguire refuted a Washington Post report that he had threatened to resign if the White House attempted to keep him from testifying freely before Congress.
“At no time have I considered resigning my position since assuming this role on Aug. 16, 2019,” he said. “I have never quit anything in my life, and I am not going to start now. I am committed to leading the Intelligence Community to address the diverse and complex threats facing our nation.”
Maguire will testify in public before House lawmakers on Thursday morning and appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee behind closed doors later in the day.
Schiff said he is still seeking to interview the author of the complaint, though it’s unclear if both parties had reached an agreement Wednesday night. Lawmakers said Wednesday that they did not expect to publicly discuss the details of the complaint, due to its classification.
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