Inquiry says, quote, ive received information from multiple u. S. Government officials that the departmepres the United States is using power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 election. The alleged white house efforts to keep all of this under wraps, testifying before Congress Earlier today saying that the whistleblower and the Inspector General, both of whom were the ones who brought this issue to the fore, both of whom were acting in good faith, he said. Cnn sara murray has details of a very busy day in washington, details that could spell trouble for the trump presidency. Were you shocked at all by what you read . None of us is above the law in this country. The complaint relied on hearsay evidence. Bombshel whistleblower complaint made public today shows President Trump asked the ukrainian president to have his 2020 rival joe biden and his son, hunter, investigate zpld that call was perfect t couldnt be nicer. Reporter allegedly so alarmed they quickly moved to lock down records of the call. Actions underscored that white house officials understood the gravity of what transpired in the call, moving the call to an Electronic System typically used to store especially sensitive conversation. This is not the first time under this administration that a president ial transcript was placed into this code word level system, solely for the purpose of protecting politically sensitive rather than National SecuritySensitive Information, according to the complaint. The complaint also alleges that trump told Vice President mike pence in may to cancel a planned trip to attend the ukrainian president s inauguration. Trump wanted to see how president zelensky chose to act in office, the complaint states. I believe that this matter is unprecedented. Acting director of National Intelligence, Joseph Maguire, appeared before the House Intelligence Committee. Such calls are typically subject to executive prifl. As a result, we consulted with the White House Counsels Office and we were advised much of the information in the complaint was, in fact, subject to executive privilege, a privilege that i do not have the authority to waive. Maguire refused to say whether he discussed the whistleblower complaint with the president but revealed trump never asked him to figure out the identity of the whistleblower. I can say although i would not normally discuss my conversations with the president , i can tell you emphatically, no. President trump ultimately allowed the complaint to be made public after an outcry from congress. While democrats condemned trumps conduct outlined in the complaint the president of the United States has betrayed his oath of office. Republicans mostly slammed thursdays hearings as an effort to undermine trump. I want to congratulate democrats on the rollout of their latest information war fare operation against the president. Reporter as trump and his gop allies began taking aim at the unknown whistleblowers motives, maguire said he believes the whistleblower acted in good faith. I think the whistleblower did the right thing. I think he followed the law every step of the way. Now, jake, ultimately, this was referred to the fbi as well as the Justice Department and the Justice Department decided that there were no charges here to bring. They said the president s phone call with the ukrainian president essentially wasnt anything of monetary value. He didnt violate any kind of Campaign Finance or election law there. But obviously the ball is still rolling on the hill, jake. Sara murray, thanks so much. Let me start with the former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee mike rogers. You spent your entire career handling classified information with the fbi and also in congress. What did you think when you read this whistleblower complaint, what did you make of it and how significant it is . The fact that the ig did a preliminary review and found it credible, despite the fact that there was some concern upfront that there could be some political bias, right . That would normally slow things down if there were some thought that this is getting even. I didnt like my boss because he fired me. I had some political bias because i dont like my boss politics. Thats a real thing they have to determine in the sense of this. The ig inspector got through that piece of it. Now theyll have to investigate that part to make sure that all of the other facts are true, but its a pretty damning document. I will say as someone who handled whistleblower complaints, im surprised they released it in the form that they did. I saw clues, as i read it, as to who may be involved in having this kind of an access to information. I hope they check with this individual and the ig before they release this report. Ill guarantee you in this town everybody and their brother is trying to put these clues together to figure out who this perpendicular is and deserved, i think, to be anonymous in this process until it goes through its full investigation. I will say, pretty damning, i think. And as a nonintelligence consumer, one thing that really jumped out on the first day was reading this reading the account of the whistleblower of the call at which we you know, we were told the whistleblower did not have access to the call. The account of it in the complaint is incredibly on target with what was actually revealed. The rough transcript . The rough transcript. It certainly i think it establishes a baseline of credibility here, because this person, they described that call to a tee and thus the other accusations in here that they when would a meeting, that they pulled back pence, that the only way zelensky was going to get a meeting is if he played ball on the biden investigation. One thing we can compare on this, it comes out pretty well and gives a certain amount of credibility to whatever else is in there. This is clear to me that this is not somebody who is in Office Gossip who heard this, who wrote it down. No. This is somebody who was in the chain of being able to legitimately get intelligence surrounding these calls, including the fact that they were readout on one of these calls tells me its somebody in that chain. So that, if im looking at this from an investigative, im thinking that person is of value and im going to guess thats why the ig came out and said this person, despite other things, this person is credible to these allegations. And the whistleblower lays it out there. It says, quote, i have received information from multiple u. S. Government officials that the president of the United States is using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 u. S. Election. A pretty stunning accusation. Its stunning. Weve been talking about this for a couple of days now. But any time i digest this information or read it its always shocking. Its always stunning, especially given the fact we just went through the Mueller Report, also to accusations leveled at this president about involvement with a Foreign Government, with the 2016 election, and then we fast forward to now over the last couple of months with these meetings and these calls that he was having, that we have the readout of. Here he was, doing exactly what people were accusing him of doing, leveraging the power of the white house in soliciting help from a Foreign Government to meddle in the 2020 election. Going forward, what does this mean . It looks like if youre a democrat, youre on the road to impeachment. We saw sort of not quite an impeachment hearing in the beginning of it. You know, thats whats going to happen over these next couple of weeks. Well see what republicans do. They didnt put up much of a defense of the president. No one is coming out and saying the president would never do Something Like this. The president loves this country. He would never put his own interests above this country. There are crickets on that end. And the president essentially saying yes, he did it, at least this phone call. And so what . The response of republicans, as nia points out, is fascinating. On capitol hill today, the republicans basically were attacking the democrats. Right. And tahat was it. They werent saying President Trump, youre misconstruing what the transcript says or this is the more innocent explanation. Its just democrats, this is a joke. Theyre horrible people. And really kind of crickets from the white house. No real denials about the essential allegation, which is pro proven and has been spoken out loud by the president and rudy giuliani, yes, we were pushing the ukrainians to investigate joe biden and his son. Its clear they didnt know what to say. They went to a kneejerk place in this hearing, attack the democrats, as you said. No one is denying the details and facts of this. It would be hard to do that, given how damning, as mike rogers said, the whistleblower complaint is. We also have this is very different in a lot of ways, but than the discussion weve been having about the Mueller Report for years. They are trumps own words were looking at in the notes of this call. This is current. Were talking about a threat to the 2020 election. This is more challenging politically. National security purposes certainly but also politically for republicans to stay away from. Some of the Senate Republicans have dismissed this as a nothing burger and theres no issue here. The investigation that will kind of fill out some of the other points that the whistleblower raises, particularly this idea that zelensky, that the president is not getting the meeting he wants until its clear hes playing ball, it will be awful hard. Theres strong evidence for that. How do you then turn around and say that the president is not, in fact i do think theyll go and say, listen, its all subject to interpretation. There is no slam dunk here. Its subject to interpretation this is one persons interpretation. Were going to put together our interpretation and now its a he said, she said. If the administration get to a he said, she said, i dont think you can impeach. I just dont think you can. Except, of course, the whistleblower was talking to administration officials. Thats the defense. If i were them, thats where i would go. I dont know if they have anywhere else to go. I think we were both saying well take a quick break and come back and continue this conversation. James clapper will join us on all the news of the special edition of the lead the white house in crisis. Stay with us. Anyone can deliver pizza. Only marcos can deliver americas most loved pizza. Hot and fresh, and right to your door. 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Thats for very senior members of the National Security apparatus. Thats like the names of spies and sources and yes, exactly. Its information that is incredibly sensitive, that a broad range of people, even in the white house, who all have top secret security clearance wouldnt have action toes. It tells me that they are trying to bury this in the further vault from any eyes, even in the white house, that they possibly can. This is used when the information is extremely sensitive. Most white houses have used that with this in mind. This was politically inconvenient for President Trump. It made him look bad, of course, obviously could be criminally damaging. This would not be the purpose of why you would use this. It tells me they were trying to bury it, even from many, many eyes in the white house. Could that be a crime, chairman rogers . No, because the president has the right to classify and declassify anything. Anything. The problem is, did they go outside the channels . My argument is when i was an fbi guy, i always tell the guys were looking at if you dont want people to think youre guilty, dont act like youre guilty. Lets talk about it. If it went out of normal channels not instructed by the president , how would that actually happen . Leads to youre seeing around this, that certainly is what we, in the fbi, would call a clue that something out of the order was going on with information contained. If it is true that white house staffers took this information and put it in this top secret vault. Clearance server, then it completely undermines President Trumps argument. Beautiful, perfect call. It undermines his argument and the argument of his allies who are essentially saying the same thing, that the president was acting within the bounds of his authority in a normal way. Vice president pence had an interview on fox where he essentially said the same thing. According to this complaint, people in the white house are worried about this call, what it meant about what the president was doing with his authority. And because of the pattern of behavior that led up to it, which will be critical in the investigation where you have the allegation that it was widely understood inside the administration that the ukraini ukrainians would not get the meeting he wanted. Its the context of the call that becomes much richer and clearer. You see that not as a oneoff but tipgs of the message. I want to go back in time, 100 years, three years to the Vice President ial debate of 2016. And a principle of american politics that then governor mike pence laid out. This is basic stuff. Foreign donors and certainly Foreign Governments cannot participate in the american political process. Foreign governments cannot participate in the american political process. Its basic stuff. Its basic stuff. You have pence there in his folksy way, saying that. This, i think, is an example of how far republicans have come from the republicans we all know and grew up with. They have some explaining to do. You see pence sounding differently now than he did before. What was it like to be in the room during a phone call like the one that President Trump had with the ukrainian president except not really like that one . James clapper may have some ideas. Hes coming up next. Youve had quite the career. Yeah, ive had some pretty prestigious jobs over the years. News producer, executive transport manager, and a beverage distribution supervisor. Now im a director at a Security Software firm. Wow, youve been at it a long time. Thing is, i like working. What if my Retirement Plan is i dont want to retire . Then lets not create a Retirement Plan. Lets create a plan for whats next. I like that. Get a plan thats right for you. Td ameritrade. Tmobiles newest signal reaches farther than ever before. With more engineers. More towers. 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