Congress releases full whistleblower complaint against Trump

Donald Trump is facing impeachment proceedings over the complaint.

In the United States, Congress has made public the whistleblower complaint that alleges Trump sought help from the Ukrainian government in his 2020 re-election bid. The complaint relates to a phone call between Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. It appears that Trump used the call to pressure his Ukrainian counterpart to investigate Joe Biden, a potential rival for the presidency in next year's election. The whistleblower notes that following the call, White House officials "intervened to 'lock down' all records of the call, especially the word-for-word transcript." The report further suggests that Trump officials, including his own personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, met with representatives for the Ukrainian government to discuss the potential for an investigation. It also substantiates the claim that Trump may have directed the US to suspend military aid to Ukraine. Ukraine is currently entangled in a dispute with Russia over their incursions into Crimea and Eastern Ukraine. Zelensky has described Vladimir Putin as an "enemy." One of the most pressing claims made is that Trump, according to the whistleblower, had directed the Office of Management and Budget to suspend all U.S. security assistance to Ukraine. OMB officials were unaware of a policy rationale behind this decision. In the report, the anonymous whistleblower, who is a member of the US intelligence community, says Trump's actions "pose risks to the U.S. national security and undermine the U.S. government's efforts to deter and counter foreign interference in U.S. elections." It was the Trump administration's active attempts to block the complaint from Congress that led Speaker for the House Nancy Pelosi to call for the beginning of impeachment proceedings against the president. You can read the complaint, in partially redacted form, here.