Democratic lawmakers who have seen the intelligence community whistleblower complaint said they were disturbed by its still-secret contents.
Members from both parties viewed the complaint, which touches on a phone call President Trump had with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in July, upon its mid-afternoon release to the House and Senate Intelligence Committees.
Walking out of the secure room where a copy of the complaint is being held, several Democrats and a few Republicans commented to reporters about what they saw without getting into specifics and signaled a long road ahead for the latest controversy rocking the Trump administration.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said the complaint exacerbated his fears about the interactions between Trump and the Ukrainian leader, whom the president asked for help to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter.
“Having read the documents in there, I’m even more worried about what happened than I was when I read the memorandum of the conversation. There are so many facts that have to be examined. It’s very troubling,” the New York Democrat said.
Rep. Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said he found the whistleblower’s allegations to be “deeply disturbing.”
“I just want to say I’ve had the opportunity, as have members of the committee, to read the whistleblower complaint,” the California Democrat said. “I found the allegations deeply disturbing. I also found them deeply credible, and I understand why the inspector general found them credible.”
California Rep. Eric Swalwell, a Democratic member of the House Intelligence committee, told CNN that the complaint is “a five-alarm concern” to him. He also described the complaint as being laid out in a “professional way” that provides “further evidence to seek other witnesses to find and documents.”
Swalwell additionally praised the whistleblower for coming forward, before adding, “What’s so alarming about this is the number of people around the conduct that occurred who didn’t say anything.”
Republicans were more muted in their response to the complaint.
Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska urged all-around caution against quickly jumping to any conclusions, including scolding Democrats for embarking on an impeachment inquiry.
“Everybody in this whole process should slow down. This place is terrible at deliberation. Democrats ought not to be using the word impeach before they have the whistleblower complaint or before they read any of the transcript,” Sasse said. “Republicans ought not to be rushing to circle the wagons to say there’s nothing there when there’s obviously lots that’s very troubling there.”
“The administration ought not to be attacking the whistleblower as some talking points suggest they plan to do,” Sasse continued. “The media humbly should not pretend that this story is about something that’s going to be resolved in the next two hours. Done right with lots of deliberation, this is going to take a lot of time, but there’s obviously some really troubling things here. But I think the partisan tribalism that is always insta-certain is a terrible idea.”
Rep. Elise Stefanik, a Republican member of the House intelligence Committee, tweeted that she read the complaint and announced that she is against impeachment. “I believe strongly in transparency and it should be immediately declassified and made public for the American people to read,” the New York congresswoman added.
I do not support impeachment of President Trump. I have just read the whistleblower complaint made available to House Intelligence Committee Members. I believe strongly in transparency and it should be immediately declassified and made public for the American people to read.
— Elise Stefanik (@EliseStefanik) September 25, 2019
It is unclear what the timetable is for when the complaint could be declassified and released to the public.
As lawmakers got their first look of the complaint, Trump announced that he told House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy that he “fully” supports transparency with the “so-called whistleblower information,” suggesting that he approved any needed declassification order and insisted on the same degree of transparency for all information related to Biden and his son.
A White House official told CNN that declassification of the complaint is underway but did not say when that process will be completed.
The whistleblower complaint controversy helped fuel a Democratic-led impeachment inquiry into Trump, although the president and his allies have denied any wrongdoing and have instead tried to refocus the controversy on Biden. After the release of the Trump-Zelensky transcript, an NBC News tally found that a majority of the House now supports some sort of impeachment action.
