House Intelligence Committee Chairmen Adam Schiff suggested President Trump or top aides are blocking the intelligence community from turning over a potentially damning whistleblower complaint about the president and Schiff is threatening to take the matter to court.
“We will look at whatever remedies we have,” Schiff, of California, said after failing to learn details about the matter after meeting privately with the intelligence community inspector general.
Despite meeting with the inspector general for hours, Schiff said he learned no new information about what the whistleblower reported. The Washington Post, citing former U.S. officials, reported Thursday the whistleblower heard Trump make a disturbing promise to a foreign leader in a phone call.
Nobody has identified the foreign leader, the promise Trump allegedly made, or the timing of the call. “We can’t get an answer because the Department of Justice and the Director of National Intelligence will not authorize the Inspector General to tell us,” Schiff said. He said the two agencies are withholding the material because it includes information protected under executive privilege.
[Related: House GOP leader not buying whistleblower claim about Trump]
Schiff said he does not know if it extends higher up the administration but Trump or top aides are “likely” behind it. “Someone is trying to manipulate the system and keep an urgent matter from Congress,” Schiff, a staunch Trump foe, told reporters after the IG meeting.
Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire is scheduled to testify in an open session before Schiff’s Intel panel next week. “There he can explain to the country why he believes this urgent concern cannot be shared with the Congress,” Schiff said.
Schiff said the inspector general wrote to the Intelligence Committee that the matter “not only falls within the Director of National Intelligence’s jurisdiction, but relates to the most significant and important of the DNI’s responsibilities to the American people.”
Schiff said he still does not know the what the whistleblower told the inspector general. “We do not have the complaint,” Schiff said. “We do not know whether the press reports are accurate or inaccurate about the contents of that complaint.”
Schiff said the panel plans to find out and may resort to stripping money out of the DNI’s budget.
