Tipsheet

Trump Admin Plans To Release Whistleblower Complaint And Info Showing Complainant Had 'Political Bias'

The White House plans to release a document showing the intelligence community's inspector general found the whistleblower who lodged a complaint against President Donald Trump had a "political bias," Fox News reported. The whistleblower allegedly is in favor of one of Trump's "rival candidates," although we don't know which candidate that is.

The Trump administration also plans to release the whistleblower's complaint to Congress as quickly as possible. 

The three lawyers for the whistleblower, Andrew Bakaj, I. Charles McCullough, III and Mark Zaid, praised the White House’s decision to release the whistleblower complaint Congress.

"We support the bipartisan, unanimous resolution passed by the Senate regarding our client's lawful whistleblower complaint and call upon the acting director of national intelligence to transmit our complete disclosure to the two Intelligence Oversight Committees," the lawyers said in a statement.

The decision comes after the Senate voted unanimously for Trump to provide them with the complaint, The Hill reported.

"We know that the executive branch is blocking the legislative branch, a coequal branch of our government, from performing its constitutional oversight duties. The fact that the whistleblower complaint concerns our national security, our foreign policy, and potential misconduct by the president makes the situation even more serious," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said on the Senate floor before the vote.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) wasn't happy with Democrats making the whistleblower's complaint political. 

"I don't believe this made-for-TV moment was actually necessary. I would have preferred the committee be allowed to do its work in a quiet, methodical manner. It doesn't serve the committee or its goals to litigate its business here on the floor or the television cameras," McConnell said. "Stipulating that our objective here is simply to conduct the kind of bipartisan oversight of intelligence matters that the committee has successfully conducted in the past, I have no objection to the senator's request."

The White House will release the transcript of President Trump's conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday.