Trump Ukraine Scandal: After Impeachment Inquiry, Trump Seeks To Tie Whistleblower To Biden Campaign

President Trump on Wednesday sought to cast the whistleblower complaint filed over his phone call to Ukraine's president as a partisan attack.

Just hours after releasing the reconstructed transcript of his July 25 call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump tweeted his excitement over a story on the conservative site, the Washington Free Beacon, identifying Andrew Bakaj of Compass Rose Legal Group, as having “earmarked a $100 donation” for former Vice President Joe Biden’s presidential campaign. Compass attorneys are representing the whistleblower.

The identity of the whistleblower and the contents of the complaint have yet to be made public. The administration declined to turn the complaint over to Congress even though it was labeled credible and “urgent” by the inspector general for the intelligence community, and law requires such documents to be transmitted to Congress within a week.

During the call, which came after Trump ordered military aid to Ukraine held up, Trump asked Zelensky to investigate Biden and pledged cooperation from Attorney General William Barr and Trump’s private attorney, Rudy Giuliani. Though Trump did not explicitly link the military aid, intended to help Ukraine fight Russian territorial aggression, to the investigation, he did remind Zelensky how much support the U.S. has provided in the past.

Trump and his supporters have insinuated without evidence that Biden in 2015 was trying to protect the company for which his son, Hunter, worked when the elder Biden urged Ukraine to fire its top prosecutor. The United States and other countries saw the prosecutor as an obstacle to reform and an impediment to routing corruption.

Trump and his supporters, like Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said the transcript doesn't provide a smoking gun for impeachment.

Joseph Maguire, the acting director of national intelligence, reportedly threatened to resign if the White House ordered him to evade lawmakers’ questions when he testifies Thursday about the complaint before the House and Senate intelligence committees.

The Washington Post reported Maguire made clear he would cooperate with lawmakers unless the administration moves to assert executive privilege. Maguire sought guidance from the Justice Department about whether to send the complaint on to Congress and was told not to, that because the subject of the complaint was not a member of the intelligence community, it was out of his jurisdiction.

Maguire issued a statement Tuesday, saying he had upheld his responsibilities and is committed to protecting whistleblowers.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff of California tweeted he had been in contact with the whistleblower’s attorney and been told the whistleblower wants to speak to the committee.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi authorized a formal impeachment inquiry Tuesday, but it was unclear the decision would have much of an impact. Six House committees already are investigating the president, who has whined on Twitter about how badly he has been treated.

He also demanded an apology, saying his phone call to Zelensky was “perfect.”