The whistleblower complaint over US President Donald Trump’s call with a foreign leader “must be addressed immediately,” says House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
The Democratic leader sent a letter to members of Congress released Sunday, calling for action in the wake of the anonymous complaint alleging that Trump urged Ukraine to investigate his possible 2020 opponent, Joe Biden.
“This violation is about our national security. The Inspector General determined that the matter is ‘urgent’ and therefore we face an emergency that must be addressed immediately,” Pelosi said.
While Trump denies he has asked Ukrainian leaders to take action against Biden and his son, Hunter, no evidence has been released suggesting that the former vice president acted with his son’s interests in mind with regard to his dealings with Ukraine.
The US president has flaunted the idea of releasing the transcript of his call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“We’ll make a determination about how to release it, releasing it, saying what we said,” Trump said in Houston earlier in the day. “The problem is, when you’re speaking to foreign leaders, you don’t want foreign leaders to feel that they shouldn’t be speaking openly… And the same thing with an American president. You want them to be able to express themselves without knowing that every single word was going to be going out and going out all over the world.”
Pelosi however, asserted that, “If the administration persists in blocking this whistleblower from disclosing to Congress a serious possible breach of constitutional duties by the president, they will be entering a grave new chapter of lawlessness which will take us into a whole new stage of investigation.”
More than half of House Democrats have already backed an impeachment inquiry against Trump, a move Pelosi remains cautious about.