Trump’s Ukraine Call Was Crazy And Frightening
In recent times, United States President, Mr. Donald Trump has described his interaction with Ukraine’s leader as ‘very normal’ and a ‘perfect call’ but the whistle-blower wrote a memo describing an official as “visibly shaken” after hearing the President’s conversation.
A White House official who listened to President Trump’s July phone call with Ukraine’s leader described it as “crazy,” “frightening” and “completely lacking in substance-related to national security,” according to a memo written by the whistle-blower at the center of the Ukraine scandal, a C.I.A. officer who spoke to the White House official.
The president has been keen to downplay the importance of his interactions with Ukraine after allegations were made by a whistleblower claiming he had attempted to pressure the leader of the eastern European country Volodymyr Zelensky into investigating his political rival Joe Biden, as well as his son, an investigation that would benefit him politically.
A palpable sense of concern had already taken hold among at least some in the White House that the call had already taken hold among at least some in the White House that the call had veered well outside the bounds of traditional diplomacy, the officer wrote.
“The official stated that there was already a conversation underway with White House lawyers about how to handle the discussion because, in the official’s view, the president had clearly committed a criminal act by urging a foreign power to investigate a U.S. person for the purposes of advancing his own re-election bid in 2020,” the C.I.A. officer wrote.
Trump’s Ukraine Call Was Crazy And Frightening
The document provides a rare glimpse into at least one of the communications with a White House official that helped prompt the whistle-blower’s formal complaint to the intelligence community inspector general detailing a broad pressure campaign on Ukraine by Mr. Trump, administration officials, and his personal lawyer.
The complaint and a reconstructed transcript released by the White House formed the basis of the House’s impeachment inquiry into Mr. Trump.
The inspector general, Michael Atkinson, handed the two-page memo over to Congress last week along with other documents that shed light on the whistle-blower and his actions. A person familiar with their contents, which Fox News first reported, described them to The New York Times. A lawyer for the whistle-blower did not comment.
The whistle-blower, who relied on “multiple U.S. government officials” for his complaint, said that Mr. Trump was “using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election.”
The White House transcript largely affirmed his account of the call, and Mr. Atkinson deemed his complaint credible, saying he interviewed others who corroborated it.
The White House official “seemed keen to inform a trusted colleague within the national security apparatus about the call,” the C.I.A. officer wrote in his July 26 memo.
Meanwhile, it was not clear whether the White House official he spoke to on July 26 was the second whistle-blower, who has also provided information to Mr. Atkinson, or a different person.
Although Mr. Trump has sought to discredit him, no one knows if the whistle-blower’s complaint has been disproved.
