The Trump administration has dropped its objections to Congressional Democrats getting both testimony from the whistleblower whose leak started the Ukraine phone-call issue and the written complaint the person had filed.
According to a New York Times report Tuesday evening, intelligence community lawyers told the not-yet-named person via a letter on Monday that it was working through the issues with an eye to allowing testimony to go forward.
“Such a meeting would allow the whistle-blower to share at least some details of the complaint he filed … even if the actual document is not handed over to Congress,” the Times wrote.
For a few days after the first reports surfaced that President Trump had tried to use U.S. aid to strong-arm the Ukrainian president into investigating former Vice President Joseph R. Biden and his son Hunter, the administration had said it would neither turn over the whistleblower’s complaint to the Director of National Intelligence nor cooperate with any probe.
The White House had argued both that the complaint wasn’t within the inspector general’s purview and that the president has the prerogative to conduct foreign policy and speak frankly to world leaders.
But political pressure meant “the administration began the process of reversing that decision” Monday, the Times reported.
Also Tuesday evening, Politico reported that the White House plans to release by the end of the week “both the whistleblower complaint and the Inspector General report” on the complaint.
Citing “a senior administration official,” Politico reported that the president has agreed to the moves.
Earlier on Tuesday, Mr. Trump had promised to release Wednesday the transcript of his call with President Volodymyr Zelensky, about which he has acknowledged discussing the Bidens and the issue of corruption, but not demanding an investigation as a quid pro quo for U.S. assistance.
