WASHINGTON (CN) - The House Intelligence Committee on Thursday released a redacted version of the whistleblower complaint that details concerns President Trump abused his office to have Ukraine interfere in the 2020 U.S. election.
The Aug. 12 letter details interactions between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky but also points to the President’s private attorney Rudy Giuliani, as well as Attorney General William Barr.
“This complaint is a roadmap for our investigation, and provides significant information for the Committee to follow up on with other witnesses and documents,” Committee Chair Adam Schiff said in a statement released with the letter.
Addressed to Schiff and his Senate corollary, Republican Richard Burr, the whistleblower’s letter describes a July 25 phone call between Trump and Zelensky that suggests the interactions between the two leaders were deeply fraught with quid pro quo and other issues related to national security.
The whistleblower also describes having been approached over the past several months by more than six members of the intelligence community with similar concerns.
“I was not a direct witness to most of the events described,” the letter says. “However, I found my colleagues’ accounts of these events to be credible because, in almost all cases, multiple officials recounted fact patterns that were consistent with one another."
As described by the whistleblower, Trump urged Zelensky in the July phone call to initiate an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden's son. Biden has been polling for months as Trump’s strongest competition for re-election in 2020, and the letter says Trump in the phone call with Zelensky praised the Ukrainian prosecutor who had been pushed for more Biden-related investigations.
The letter also says Trump asked the Ukrainian government to make it look like “allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election originated in Ukraine.”
Multiple times and in tandem, the letter continues, Trump pressured Zelensky to “meet or speak with ... Mr. Giuliani and Attorney General Barr.”
The complaint goes on to say Ukraine's government was the first to acknowledge the nature of the phone call with a readout of the conversation on July 25 noting Trump wanted them to "complete the investigation of corruption cases that have held back cooperation" between the two countries.
Noting that security during the call was light, the whistleblower wrote that the content was set to be "routine." The whistleblower described uncertainty as to whether anyone was in the room with Trump when the call occurred but was told that State Department and Intelligence officials were involved.