The Washington Post is reporting that the mysterious whistleblower complaint concerning Donald Trump "centers on Ukraine," according to two people familiar with the matter.
Trump reportedly made a promise to a foreign leader that was so troubling a U.S. intelligence official put their career on the line to file an official complaint with the intelligence community inspector general (IG). The New York Times reported earlier Thursday that the complaint included "multiple acts" of misconduct rather than just a singular slip-up of communication. From the Post:
Two and a half weeks before the complaint was filed, Trump spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, a comedian and political newcomer who was elected in a landslide in May.
That call is already under investigation by House Democrats who are examining whether Trump and his attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani sought to manipulate the Ukrainian government into helping Trump’s reelection campaign. Lawmakers have demanded a full transcript and a list of participants on the call. [...]
House Democrats are looking into whether Giuliani traveled to Ukraine to pressure that government outside of formal diplomatic channels to effectively help the Trump reelection effort by investigating Hunter Biden about his time on the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian gas company.
National security experts have tended to agree that the infraction almost surely involved more than just the disclosure of sensitive information to a foreign leader since a president has wide-ranging authority in such matters. Certainly some type of quid pro quo concerning the 2020 election would rise to the type of malfeasance for which an intelligence official might actually risk their career.
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