President Donald Trump dismissed as "Fake News" an explosive claim by an intelligence whistleblower who says Trump made a disturbing "promise" to an unspecified foreign leader.
"Is anybody dumb enough to believe that I would say something inappropriate with a foreign leader while on such a potentially (monitored) call" Trump asked on Twitter. "I would only do what is right anyway."
Congress was set to get a closed-doors briefing Thursday morning on the "handling of the complaint" from Inspector General Michael Atkinson, easing a dramatic standoff between the executive and legislative branches of government.
Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire will also testify publicly before the panel next week, according to a committee statement.
The anonymous whistleblower, described only as a member of the intelligence committee filed the complaint in August about alleged "serious misconduct."
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) has said the complaint might involve the White House, which has refused to comment on the mysterious incident.
The Washington Post, citing unnamed sources, is reporting that the complaint involved a phone call in which Trump made a promise to a foreign leader. The Wall Street Journal and NBC News confirmed the report with their own sources.
Among the heads of state whom Trump spoke with around that time include the Emir of Qatar, North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un and Russian strongman Vladimir Putin.
Trump supposedly called Putin to offer American help fighting raging forest fires in the Siberian hinterland around that time. He also later called for Russia to be readmitted into the G-8 group of world economic powers.
Prominent legal critics of Trump suggested the whistleblower complaint could be a major embarrassment to Trump that will be difficult to keep under wraps.
Federal law provides extensive protection to government workers who make such complaints and mandate congressional scrutiny of them, potentially offering an inside glimpse at Trump's seat-of-his-pants style of dealing with foreign leaders.
Former solicitor general Neal Katyal predicted there would be transcripts of the conversation in question "documenting a gross abuse of power by Trump."
The president's interaction with the foreign leader included a "promise" that prompted an intelligence official to file a formal whistleblower complaint, the officials said.
McGuire is on the hot seat after just a couple of weeks on the job. Trump chose Maguire to become the acting director of national intelligence when Dan Coats stepped down last month and his deputy, who would have succeeded him at least temporarily, also abruptly quit.
That sequence of events has raised eyebrows among insiders who question whether the musical chairs is somehow related to the whistleblower complaint.
In an extensive Twitter thread, Fordham Law professor Jed Shugerman suggested that the timeline offers tantalizing hints of a botched Trump cover up of the improper promise to a foreign leader, most likely Putin.
