The Trump White House has leaked to Fox News its claim the whistleblower –whose multi-faceted complaint against President Donald Trump led to the announcement of a formal impeachment inquiry earlier Tuesday — is now seen as having “political bias.”
In a clear attempt to discredit the unnamed whistleblower — who is an intelligence official — and thus their complaint, Fox News cites an anonymous source identified only as a “senior Trump administration official.”
That unnamed individual “told Fox News late Tuesday that the administration will release a document showing the intelligence community inspector general found the whistleblower who leveled an explosive accusation against President Trump concerning his talks with Ukraine had ‘political bias’ in favor of ‘a rival candidate’ of the president.”
That same intelligence community inspector general had found the whistleblower’s complaint to be “credible” and “urgent.”
A whistleblower’s possible motivation or political ties do not change facts. President Donald Trump has already admitted to committing illegal acts.
The newly-announced formal impeachment inquiry is not based solely on the whistleblower’s complaint, which the Trump administration for weeks has been refusing to hand over to Congress. By law it was required to do so weeks ago. It has yet to do so.
President Trump Tuesday night agreed to give to Congress a transcript of a telephone call he had with the president of Ukraine. There is no reason, based on the Trump administration’s history of altering or wrongly transcribing official government documents, it will be full or credible.
The White House Tuesday night also said it will finally release to Congress the whistleblower complaint. Again, there is no reason to believe it will be full or a credibly redacted or edited version.