WASHINGTON _ The whistleblower whose allegations of improper conduct by President Donald Trump toward Ukraine kicked off the House's impeachment effort feared that the White House was trying to "lock down" records of the president's actions to shield them from scrutiny.
In the days after Trump's July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, White House officials took unusual steps to secure the transcript of the call, the whistleblower said in the written complaint, a redacted version of which was released Thursday by the House Intelligence Committee.
White House officials said the effort to keep the Ukraine call under wraps was "not the first time" extra steps had been taken "for the purpose of protecting politically sensitive _ rather than national security sensitive _ information," the whistleblower wrote.
That was one piece of a wide-ranging complaint that expressed fears Trump was hijacking U.S. foreign policy for personal gain.
The redacted version of the complaint was released shortly before the House Intelligence Committee was scheduled to begin a public hearing with Joseph Maguire, the director of national intelligence.
Although the complaint is centered on the July 25 call between Trump and Zelensky, it includes broader concerns about Trump's actions and his allies.
The whistleblower said there was no explanation given to national security officials for why Trump was delaying critical military aid for Ukraine at the same time he was pushing Zelensky to help investigate former Vice President Joseph Biden, a potential opponent in next year's election.
"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," the whistleblower wrote in the complaint.
The complaint provides a more wide-angle view of the scandal than the memorandum of Trump's call with Zelensky that the White House released on Wednesday. It discussed attempts by Rudolph W. Giuliani, the president's personal lawyer, to network with Ukrainian officials.
"I heard from multiple U.S. officials that they were deeply concerned by what they viewed as Mr. Giuliani's circumvention of national security decision making processes to engage with Ukrainian officials and relay messages back and forth between Kyiv and the President," the whistleblower wrote.
Kyiv is the capital of Ukraine, formerly known as Kiev.
House Democrats who read the document on Wednesday called it "deeply disturbing."
"This complaint is a roadmap for our investigation, and provides significant information for the Committee to follow up on with other witnesses and documents. And it is corroborated by the call record released yesterday," House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff (D-Burbank) said in a statement.
The whistleblower's identity has not been made public.
