Beware leaks to the media about the whistleblower complaint from inside the intelligence community that surfaced earlier this month, warned Rep. Devin Nunes.
The California Republican told Fox & Friends on Monday that little is actually known about this complaint, and that it may not have anything to do with a July phone call between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, as has been reported.
“This is a whistleblower,” Nunes said, who “supposedly wants to remain secret, yet all his secrets — his or her secrets — are spilling out in the pages of the New York Times, Washington Post, and NBC News. We have no idea. This could maybe not even be about Ukraine. We have seen absolutely nothing.”
Nunes is the ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee, which last week was briefed by Inspector General Michael Atkinson, who deemed the complaint “credible” and “urgent.” Echoing other lawmakers who were in attendance, Nunes said Atkinson “didn’t tell us any information” about the complaint.
In that closed-door briefing, Atkinson is said to have told lawmakers that he was forbidden by acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire to disclose details about the complaint. Maguire, who is set to testify this week about the matter, reportedly received guidance on the situation from the Justice Department, as well as the White House.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff first revealed the existence of the whistleblower complaint on Sept. 13, when he issued a subpoena to Maguire to hand it over as he said statute required. So far the Trump administration has not played ball with Democrats and some Republicans who want to see the complaint, citing jurisdictional issues. The controversy has also re-energized a push in the Democratic Party for impeachment.
Only in media reports has it been said that the complaint, at least in part, has to do with Trump pressuring Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden’s son Hunter, who did business in Ukraine while his father was vice president, at a time when the elder Biden is campaigning to be president. One report even said the whistleblower did not have direct knowledge of the communications between Trump and Ukraine.
Trump has admitted that he talked about Biden to Zelensky, but argues he did nothing wrong. Ukraine’s foreign minister also claimed Trump did not pressure Zelensky during that phone call.
Nunes said he sees similarities between this controversy and the Russia debacle that cast a cloud over the first two-and-a-half years of Trump’s presidency. “Doesn’t it feel like the Russia hoax all over again? It’s like the Ukrainian hoax,” he said.
