Newly declassified transcripts from the Intelligence Community’s then-inspector general show that the whistleblower whose complaint triggered President Donald Trump’s first impeachment had prior contact with congressional Democrats before filing the allegation, a newly-surfaced and damning detail that was not disclosed in the official complaint form.
The records, released Monday following declassification by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and the House Intelligence Committee, shed new light on the origins of the August 2019 complaint centered on Trump’s July 25, 2019, phone call with Ukrainian President
Volodymyr Zelensky. That phone call centered on Trump requesting that Zelensky look into the business dealings of Hunter Biden in Ukraine.
During a closed-door deposition on Oct. 4, 2019, then-Rep.
John Ratcliffe (R-TX) pressed Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson on the timeline between Trump’s phone call and the filing of the complaint roughly 18 days later. Ratcliffe asked whether the whistleblower had disclosed prior contact with the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
“The answer to that is yes,” Atkinson replied, according to the transcript.
Atkinson went on to explain that the initial whistleblower, whose identity was never confirmed by the government, did not disclose his contact with Democrats on the form he submitted to the inspector general’s office, despite the form containing a question on whether the...
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