Whistleblower Complaint Details Phone Call and Alleged Cover-up by Trump Administration

Win McNamee/Getty Images

Win McNamee/Getty Images

 

We ran the numbers: There are 1618 news articles covering this topic. 42% (673) are left leaning, 41% (662) center, 17% (283) right leaning.

The whistleblower complaint, released Wednesday by the White House, provides insight on how the President may have abused his power to gain the inside track on a political foe.  As damaging as the call itself was, it is the section in the transcript that details how the Trump administration allegedly covered-up the phone call that has Americans screaming abuse. 

According to the whistleblower, Trump officials, recognizing an unseemly action may have transpired, made efforts to “lock down” the transcript of the call by removing it from the standard storage space and uploading it to a separate computer used only for the most highly classified communications, despite there being no classified information within the call.  

On Thursday, a New York Times article describes the whistle-blower as a C.I.A. officer detailed to the White House at one point. Although the Times did not name the whistleblower, Politico reports on the outcry from critics accusing the article of doing great harm to him and his career as the details provided may lead to his unmasking. Fox News reports on calls to cancel subscriptions to the Times.

A left-leaning article from The New York Times synthesized the information in the whistleblower complaint and compiled a list of key takeaways. Among them, the NYT reports that White House officials believed Trump abused his power and that lawyers within the White House attempted, on separate occasions, to hide the transcript. Specifically, White House officials told the whistleblower they were concerned that President Trump was using his office to “solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election.”

A center-leaning article from NPR adds to their previous chronologies, but focuses on recent developments that the White House may have taken steps to cover-up Trump’s phone call by hiding the transcript in a secure electronic system. “Multiple” officials from the White House reportedly told the whistleblower that it was “not the first time that such an action had taken place for apparently political, rather than security, reasons.”

A right-leaning article from Fox News highlights the defense of Trump by acting Director of National Intelligence Robert Maguire when he appeared before the House Intelligence Committee. “This is second-hand information. I’m not criticizing the whistleblower,” Maguire said, adding; “...I am in no position to tell the committee to do an investigation or not to do an investigation.” Among his other comments, Maguire also noted that the complaint was not “corroborated by other folks,” essentially making it “hearsay.” 


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