House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said President Trump “must” allow the intelligence community’s inspector general to give Democrats the information he received from a whistleblower about the president’s call with a foreign leader.
The California Democrat argued the Trump administration is breaking the law by blocking acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire from giving Congress access to the information.
“The administration’s blocking of acting DNI Joseph Maguire from providing Congress with the whistleblower complaint violates the federal statute, which unequivocally states that the DNI ‘shall’ provide Congress this information,” Pelosi said Friday.
“If the president has done what has been alleged, then he is stepping into a dangerous minefield with serious repercussions for his administration and our democracy.”
Democrats say they have not been able to learn the details of the complaint, provided by an intelligence officer acting as a whistleblower.
According to news reports, it involves a conversation with a government official from Ukraine and a “promise” Trump made. The president has declined to offer more details about the complaint and said his call was “totally appropriate.”
Pelosi accused both Trump and Maguire of stonewalling, which she said “must end immediately.” She said the whistleblower should be provided “with every protection guaranteed by the law to defend the integrity of our government and ensure accountability and trust.”
Pelosi pledged the House would “explore every possible option to ensure the American people get the truth.”
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, also a California Democrat, said Thursday he might take the Trump administration to court to seek the information.
[Read more: Trump calls whistleblower ‘partisan,’ then admits he doesn’t know who it is]
