The head of National Intelligence of Donald Trump’s administration, Joseph Maguire is testifying before the U.S Congress following allegations the president abused his office in an attempt to get Ukraine to interfere in the 2020 presidential election. Maguire is appearing before the Democrat-controlled House intelligence committee, just minutes after a whistleblower’s complaint against the president was made public. Trump made a phone call in July to his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky. He appeared to ask for political dirt on Joe Biden. It is noteworthy that Biden is his Democratic rivals in next year’s election. It has initiated an official impeachment inquiry to be launched against him. The head of National Intelligence refused to discuss whether he spoke to the president regarding the complaint in question.
Maguire said his conversations with Trump are an executive privilege. He said the White House didn’t ask him to assert that privilege. The acting spy chief said in his opening remarks that he welcomed Congress’ oversight duties. He said, “I am not partisan and I am not political. In light of recent reporting on the whistle-blower complaint, I want to make clear that I have upheld my responsibility to follow the law every step of the way”. The intelligence official also said he was committed to protecting whistle-blowers and ensuring every complaint is handled appropriately. Maguire denied explosive allegations published in the Washington Post prior to his public testimony.
He said he threatened to resign from his post if the White House administration attempted to stop him from testifying or forced him to stonewall Congress. Maguire described on Thursday how he first heard of the whistleblower complaint in question. He said that much of the complaint was, in fact, subject to executive privilege. He added that he is unable to release the complaint until after the president chose to release a memorandum of his phone call with the Ukrainian president. Maguire said, “Until executive privilege is determined and cleared, I did not have the authority to be able to send that forward to the committee. I believe this case is unique and unprecedented”.