Acting director of national intelligence denies threatening to resign

The acting director of National Intelligence on Wednesday denied a report from The Washington Post that he threatened to resign if President Trump sought to block his testimony before Congress regarding the Ukraine scandal.

“At no time have I considered resigning my position since assuming this role on Aug. 16, 2019. I have never quit anything in my life, and I am not going to start now,” Joseph Maguire said in a statement. “I am committed to leading the Intelligence Community.”{mosads}

The Post had reported that Maguire told the White House that he was unwilling to withhold information from Congress, forcing the administration to make a decision on whether or not it would exert executive privilege over an intelligence community whistleblower complaint at the center of House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry.

White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham had also forcefully denied the Post’s report:

This is actually not true. And we would have gone on the record to say that if the @washingtonpost had given us more than 6 minutes (literally) to respond. https://t.co/5EBnBlShbK

— Stephanie Grisham (@PressSec) September 25, 2019

The whistleblower complaint from inside the intelligence community has not been seen by Congress, and it is not clear what allegations it makes beyond those involving a call between Trump and Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky in which Trump pressured his Ukrainian counterpart to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, who is seeking to challenge him for the White House in 2020.

The complaint was given to Maguire last month, putting him in the middle of a fight between the White House and Congress, where House Democrats have demanded to see it.

Trump has denied any wrongdoing in conversations with the foreign leader, saying that there was no explicit quid pro quo.

—Updated at 3:46 p.m. Chris Mills Rodrigo contributed.