The White House is reportedly distributing talking points to congressional Republicans to undermine the credibility of the newly released whistleblower complaint as “nothing more than conspiracy theories.” There’s just one problem: The whistleblower, who wasn’t even a direct witness to the events at the center of the Trump-Ukraine scandal, described the call between President Trump and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine with high accuracy, according to what we know from the White House-released transcript of the call.
This suggests the whistleblower’s sources know what they’re talking about.
It’s possible the whistleblower, who allegedly has a partisan lean against Trump, got other parts of the report wrong or that his motivation is purely political, not principled. But the accuracy and detail of the whistleblower’s account of the call with Zelensky grants substantial credibility to him as a source, rendering further investigation and corroboration of the deeply troubling report necessary.
Even if every detail of the report is true, it alone isn’t a smoking gun for impeachable offenses, even if it and the transcript of the call contain items that make Trump unelectable. The report claims senior Trump officials attempted to “lock down” all records of the call, and we already know the White House attempts to run interference for Trump’s malfeasances.
The report further explains how Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, has allegedly acted as Trump’s envoy with Ukraine. But again, we already knew Trump was relying on his personal attorney — and not government officials accountable to the public — to advance foreign policy, however inappropriate it may be.
All of these leads ought to be followed, but if definitive evidence of a quid pro quo is never unearthed, it seems highly unlikely that public support will swell past its current sparse minority.
But never trust a Democrat not to let an actual lead against Trump go to waste. We’re about two hours into the House Intelligence Committee hearing with acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire, and Democrats are still avoiding discussing the actual substance of the report.
Instead, they’re focusing on process questions. Scintillating.
