Senate passes measure urging Trump officials to hand over whistleblower complaint

The Senate passed a resolution on Tuesday urging the administration to hand over a whistleblower complaint reportedly tied to President Trump. 

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) asked for unanimous consent to pass the non-binding resolution, marking a rare bipartisan moment amid a days-long partisan fight on the complaint. 

{mosads}”We know that the executive branch is blocking the legislative branch, a coequal branch of our government, from performing its constitutional oversight duties. The fact that the whistleblower complaint concerns our national security, our foreign policy, and potential misconduct by the president makes the situation even more serious,” Schumer said from the Senate floor. 

Schumer added that he couldn’t think of a “straight-faced reason” the resolution would be blocked, unless a senator was trying to “shield the president’s conduct from scrutiny.” 

The resolution urges the administration to hand over the complaint and states that the Senate and House Intelligence committees “should be allowed to evaluate the complaint in a deliberate and bipartisan manner consistent with applicable statutes and processes in order to safeguard classified and sensitive information.” 

The administration has so far refused to hand over the whistleblower complaint, which has led to mounting scrutiny of the president.

The complaint is said to be tied to Trump’s conversations with a foreign leader and is reportedly related to Ukraine. Trump initially denied that he held up aid for the country unless it agreed to investigate former Vice President Biden or his son, Hunter Biden. But he also acknowledged on Tuesday that he had put a hold on the funding.  

Trump has in recent days defended his handling of a call with Ukraine’s president in late July and has authorized the release of a transcript of the call on Tuesday. 

Under Senate rules, any one senator can ask to pass a resolution and any senator can object.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) knocked Democrats for trying to politicize the whistleblower complaint even as the Senate Intelligence Committee has been working to get more information. Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire and the intelligence community’s inspector general are expected to brief the panel on Thursday. 

“I don’t believe this made-for-TV moment was actually necessary. I would have preferred the committee be allowed to do its work in a quiet, methodical manner. It doesn’t serve the committee or its goals to litigate its business here on the floor or the television cameras,” McConnell said. 

But, he added that agreed the acting DNI “should make additional information available to the committee” and that he wouldn’t block the resolution. 

“Stipulating that our objective here is simply to conduct the kind of bipartisan oversight of intelligence matters that the committee has successfully conducted in the past, I have no objection to the senator’s request,” McConnell said.