Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire suggested that future foreign leaders may change the way they “interact with” the president of the United States as a result of the phone call between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky getting released.
Maguire testified in front of the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday morning in regards to the whistleblower’s complaint alleging that Trump improperly applied pressure to Zelensky to investigate former Vice President and 2020 Democratic front-runner Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden. The transcript of their phone call was released publicly on Wednesday.
“But do you believe the president’s entitled to withhold his or her communications from Congress if the conversation is used in a whistleblower case?” Republican Rep. Brad Wenstrup asked.
“I think that the president, when he conducts diplomacy and deals with foreign heads of state, he has every right to be able to have that information be held within the White House and the executive branch,” Maguire answered. “Yesterday, I think the transmission of the call is unprecedented, and it’s also — I think that other future leaders, when they interact with our head of state, might be more cautious in what they say and reduce the interaction that they have with the president because of that release.”
The Ohio Republican responded, “So we may need to change our process here because I guess if a decision regarding executive privilege — maybe it should be made prior to submitting the communication to Congress.”
“Well, either that — I believe that this committee wrote the law,” Maguire followed up. “Based on what we’re doing today, you know, perhaps it needs to be relooked. I don’t know. I leave that to the legislative branch.”
Zelensky and Trump spoke together at the United Nations on Wednesday and took questions from reporters. The Ukrainian leader was asked about the conversation and he said, “Nobody pushed me.”
