House Intel to see whistleblower complaint on Wednesday afternoon

The House Intelligence Committee on Wednesday afternoon is slated to review the whistleblower complaint that sparked a formal impeachment inquiry against President Trump, members of the panel say.

Rep. Devin Nunes (Calif.), the top Republican on the committee, publicly announced on the House floor that Intelligence members will review the complaint behind closed doors at 4 p.m.{mosads}

“At 4 o’clock this afternoon, in fact, the DNI [director of national intelligence] is going to transmit the complaint to the Intelligence Committee spaces where all the Intelligence Committee members will have an opportunity to read it,” Nunes said.

Three committee sources also confirmed such plans, though they said it was unclear whether the complaint will have redactions or not.

Access to the complaint comes a day after Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced that the House will begin a formal impeachment inquiry, and a day before acting DNI Joseph Maguire is set to testify before the panel about the handling of the complaint.

Maguire, who reportedly threatened to resign if the White House seeks to gag his testimony, previously withheld the complaint that a DNI watchdog deemed credible and urgent, stating that the allegations fell outside the intelligence community’s whistleblower statute.

Democrats and some legal experts have said Maguire exploited a loophole in his reading of the statute, which is intended to give whistleblowers within the intelligence community a safe way to come forward, particularly if it involves classified information.

The complaint is said to relate to Trump’s efforts to get Ukraine to investigate one of his political rivals, former Vice President Joe Biden and his son.

And allowing Congress to review the complaint comes amid growing pressure from House Democrats to provide information about such conversations.

Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to open a corruption probe into Biden in a July 5 phone call, according to a partial five-page transcript of the call released by the White House Wednesday morning.

The president, however, has denied using financial aid to Ukraine that would help the country combat Russian aggression as leverage to get Zelensky to open the Biden probe.

Revelations about Trump’s asks of Ukraine has inspired a wave of Democratic-impeachment holdouts to come out in favor of removing Trump from office.

Pelosi said Tuesday that Democrats were in a formal impeachment inquiry, a move that gave weight and momentum to Democrats who are seeking to remove Trump from office.

Some Democrats privately say now that the ball is rolling, it won’t stop until it ends with them introducing articles of impeachment.

After the release of the partial transcript, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) compared Trump’s request to a mob boss shakedown.

Republicans, however, say Democrats have jumped too early, particularly before they heard from Maguire. They also argue that the transcript shows there was no quid pro quo.

Still, other GOP members expressed some concern at what they read, though they said it is far from an impeachable offense.