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Democrats call whistleblower complaint ‘deeply disturbing’

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., talks to reporters about the release by the White House of a transcript of a call between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Voldymyr Zelenskiy, in which Trump is said to have pushed for Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his family, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2019. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and the Democrats are now launching a formal impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump. Rep. Schiff characterized Trump's words saying, "this is how a mafia boss talks." (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats who reviewed a secret whistleblower complaint involving President Donald Trump Wednesday called it “deeply disturbing” and said it gives them new leads to pursue as they consider impeachment.

The complaint from an intelligence community whistleblower, the document at the center of a firestorm about Trump’s handling of Ukraine, was made available to members of House and Senate intelligence committees Wednesday after weeks of delay. Lawmakers were allowed to see the complaint the evening before acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire was set to testify to Congress about it.

The complaint is at least in part related to a July phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in which Trump prodded Zelenskiy to investigate Democratic political rival Joe Biden. The White House released a rough transcript of that call Wednesday morning.

House Democrats emerging from a secure room would not divulge details of the complaint, but described it as disturbing and urgent. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said it “exposed serious wrongdoing” and “certainly provides information for the committee to follow up with others.”

California Rep. Eric Swalwell told CNN that the whistleblower “laid out a lot of other documents and witnesses who were subjects in this matter.”

The complaint showed the whistleblower learned details of the call from White House officials, according to one person familiar with the complaint who was granted anonymity to discuss it.

Another such person said the lawmakers did not learn the identity of the whistleblower.

A Democratic member of the panel, Illinois Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, said the whistleblower “lays out the situation very logically” and “is both acknowledging the things that he or she knows and doesn’t know, which is a hallmark of a credible document.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — who on Tuesday fully endorsed an impeachment investigation in light of the Ukraine revelations — and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer also viewed the complaint. Schumer said he is even “more worried” now than he was before reading it and “there are huge numbers of facts crying out for investigation.”

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