{"id":1140582,"date":"2019-09-26T12:18:51","date_gmt":"2019-09-26T17:18:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kereport.com\/?p=67279"},"modified":"2019-09-26T12:18:51","modified_gmt":"2019-09-26T17:18:51","slug":"everything-in-the-issue-surrounding-trumps-phone-call-is-totally-unprecedented","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1140582","title":{"rendered":"Everything in the issue surrounding Trump\u2019s phone call is totally unprecedented\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>istleblower: White House tried to &#8216;lock down&#8217; call detailsAP NEWS<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.apnews.com\/\">Top Stories<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Topics\n<ol>\n<li><\/li>\n<li><\/li>\n<li><\/li>\n<li><\/li>\n<li><\/li>\n<li><\/li>\n<li><\/li>\n<li><\/li>\n<li><\/li>\n<li><\/li>\n<li><\/li>\n<li><\/li>\n<li><\/li>\n<li><\/li>\n<li><\/li>\n<li><\/li>\n<li><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.apnews.com\/apf-videos\">Video<\/a><\/li>\n<li>ListenAP RADIOUpdate hourly<\/li>\n<li><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Search<a href=\"https:\/\/facebook.com\/dialog\/share?app_id=870613919693099&amp;quote=Whistleblower:%20White%20House%20tried%20to%20%27lock%20down%27%20call%20details&amp;display=popup&amp;href=https:\/\/apnews.com\/cce1f1146f924609912a032c61fd067c%22  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=Whistleblower:%20White%20House%20tried%20to%20%27lock%20down%27%20call%20details&amp;url=https:\/\/apnews.com\/cce1f1146f924609912a032c61fd067c\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><\/a><a href=\"mailto:?subject=Whistleblower:%20White%20House%20tried%20to%20%27lock%20down%27%20call%20details&amp;body=https:\/\/apnews.com\/cce1f1146f924609912a032c61fd067c\"><\/a>Click to copyRELATED TOPICS<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.apnews.com\/Ukraine\">Ukraine<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.apnews.com\/apf-topnews\">AP Top News<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.apnews.com\/apf-GeneralNews\">General News<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.apnews.com\/apf-politics\">Politics<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.apnews.com\/Elections\">Elections<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.apnews.com\/Impeachments\">Impeachments<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.apnews.com\/Election2020\">Election 2020<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.apnews.com\/DonaldTrump\">Donald Trump<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h1>Whistleblower: White House tried to \u2018lock down\u2019 call details<\/h1>\n<p>By ERIC TUCKER and MARY CLARE JALONICK36 minutes ago<a href=\"https:\/\/www.apnews.com\/cce1f1146f924609912a032c61fd067c\/gallery\/55a0870bd9f241ae8ae6a123fe8c528b\">1 of 14Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire testifies before the House Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2019. (AP Photo\/Andrew Harnik)<\/a><\/p>\n<p>WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The whistleblower at the center of Congress\u2019 impeachment inquiry alleges that President Donald Trump abused the power of his office to \u201csolicit interference from a foreign country\u201d in next year\u2019s U.S. election. The White House then tried to \u201clock down\u201d the information to cover it up, the official\u2019s complaint says.<\/p>\n<p>The 9-page document released Thursday fleshes out the circumstances of a summertime phone call in which the president encouraged his Ukraine counterpart to help investigate a political rival, alleges a pivotal role for Trump\u2019s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and suggests a concerted White House effort to suppress the exact transcript, including by relocating it to a separate computer system.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the days following the phone call, I learned from multiple U.S. officials that senior White House officials had intervened to \u2018lock down\u2019 all the records of the phone call, especially the official word-for-word transcript of the call that was produced as is customary by the White House situation room,\u201d the complaint says.<\/p>\n<p>With its precise detail and clear narrative, the previously secret document will likely accelerate the impeachment process and put more pressure on Trump to rebut its core contentions and on his fellow Republicans to defend him. The complaint provides a road map for Democrats to seek corroborating witnesses and evidence, which will complicate the president\u2019s efforts to characterize the findings as those of a lone partisan out to undermine him.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.kereport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/image-4.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-67280\"\/><\/figure>\n<figure><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowfullscreen=\"1\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/wIEM4U0F3XM?rel=0&amp;showinfo=0&amp;modestbranding=1&amp;autohide=1&amp;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.apnews.com&amp;enablejsapi=1&amp;playsinline=1&amp;widgetid=1\"><\/iframe><\/figure>\n<p>It is also certain to revive questions about the activities of Giuliani, who the complaint says alarmed government officials by circumventing \u201cnational security decision making processes.\u201d Giuliani, a Trump loyalist who represented the president in special counsel Robert Mueller\u2019s Russia investigation, repeatedly communicated with advisers of Ukraine\u2019s president in the days after the phone call.<\/p>\n<p>Trump insisted anew on Thursday that it is all political. After the complaint was released, he immediately tweeted, \u201cThe Democrats are trying to destroy the Republican Party and all that it stands for. Stick together, play their game and fight hard Republicans. Our country is at stake.\u201d The tweet was in all capital letters.<\/p>\n<p>The whistleblower complaint centers in part on a July phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in which Trump prodded Zelenskiy to investigate Democratic political rival Joe Biden. The White House released a rough transcript of that call on Wednesday. In the aftermath of the call, according to the whistleblower, White House lawyers were concerned \u201cthey had witnessed the President abuse his office for personal gain.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The House intelligence committee released a redacted version of the whistleblower complaint Thursday ahead of testimony from Joseph Maguire, the acting director of national intelligence. He acknowledged that the complaint alleged serious wrongdoing by the president but insisted that it was not his role to judge whether the allegations were credible or not.<\/p>\n<p>Maguire said he was unfamiliar with any other whistleblower complaint in American history that \u201ctouched on such complicated and sensitive issues.\u201d He praised the whistleblower as having acted honorably, said he recognized the complaint as immediately sensitive and important and insisted the White House did not direct him to withhold it from Congress.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI believe that everything in this matter here is totally unprecedented.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the complaint, the anonymous whistleblower says that despite his or her not being present for Trump\u2019s Ukraine call, multiple White House officials shared consistent details about it.<\/p>\n<p>Those officials told the whistleblower that \u201cthis was \u2018not the first time\u2019 under this administration that a presidential transcript was placed into this codeword-level system solely for the purpose of protecting politically sensitive &#8212; rather than national security sensitive &#8212; information,\u201d the complaint said.<\/p>\n<p>The whistleblower said that White House officials had tried to suppress the exact transcript of the call that was produced &#8212; as is customary &#8212; by the White House Situation Room, according to the complaint.<\/p>\n<p>The officials told the whistleblower they were \u201cdirected\u201d by White House lawyers to remove the electronic transcript from the computer system in which such transcripts are typically stored for coordination, finalization and distribution to Cabinet-level officials.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis set of actions underscored to me that White House officials understood the gravity of what had transpired in the call,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf this was all so innocent,\u201d said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York, \u201cwhy did so many officials in the White House, in the Justice Department and elsewhere make such large efforts to prevent it from being made public?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The complaint also focuses on Giuliani, the president\u2019s personal lawyer. It says that multiple U.S. officials reported that Giuliani traveled to Madrid one week after the call to meet with one of Zelenskiy\u2019s advisers, and that the meeting was characterized as a follow-up to the telephone conversation between the two leaders<\/p>\n<p>House Republicans largely steered clear of discussing the substance of the call during the hearing, spending more energy criticizing Democrats than Trump.<\/p>\n<p>One exception was Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio, who said, \u201cConcerning that conversation, I want to say to the president \u2014 this is not OK. That conversation is not OK. It\u2019s disappointing to the American people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Later in the day, Maguire was to go behind closed doors to speak to the Senate intelligence panel.<\/p>\n<p>House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday endorsed an impeachment investigation in light of the Ukraine revelations. The president, she said, \u201cbetrayed his oath of office our national security and the integrity\u201d of our elections.<\/p>\n<p>The unidentified whistleblower submitted a complaint to Michael Atkinson, the U.S. government\u2019s intelligence inspector general, in August. Maguire then blocked release of the complaint to Congress, citing issues of presidential privilege and saying the complaint did not deal with an \u201curgent concern.\u201d Atkinson disagreed, but said his hands were tied.<\/p>\n<p>The House and Senate intelligence committees have invited the whistleblower to testify, but it is uncertain whether the person will appea<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>istleblower: White House tried to &lsquo;lock down&rsquo; call detailsAP NEWS Top Stories Topics Video ListenAP RADIOUpdate hourly SearchClick to copyRELATED&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[362],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1140582"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1140582"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1140582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1140630,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1140582\/revisions\/1140630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1140582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1140582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1140582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}