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Whistleblower Complaint Released, Alleges Trump White House Coverup

September 26th, 2019 - 12:54 PM EDT by Matt Schimkowitz

Two days after the House Democrats launched a formal impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump, the whistleblower complaint at the center of the investigation has been released, revealing a slew of new details and insight into Trump's controversial phone call with Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The complaint alleges that the President had misused his office for personal and political gain, pressuring President Zelensky to investigate a chief political rival, Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter. Aides to the president and other officials also appear in the complaint, which accuses them of helping the president in his efforts to launch the investigation into Biden, while withholding aid to Ukraine.

"In the course of my official duties, I have received information from multiple U.S. government officials that the President of the United States is using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election," the August 12th, 2019 complaint reads. "This interference includes, among other things, pressuring a foreign country to investigate one of the President’s main domestic political rivals. The President’s personal lawyer, Mr. Rudolph W. Giuliani, is a central figure in this effort. Attorney General Barr appears to be involved as well."

Furthermore, the complain details an attempted coverup of the call's transcripts. The whistleblower states that they were instructed to "lock down" the transcripts of the call. A rough transcript, made from White House voice-activated software was released on Wednesday.

"In the days following the phone call, I learned from multiple U.S. officials that senior White House officials had intervened to ‘lock down’ all records of the phone call, especially the word-for-word transcript of the call that was produced -- as is customary -- by the White House Situation Room."

As new details about the call and the complain came to light, people discussed and debated the assertions of the complaint online, cataloging the conversations under the hashtag #WhistleblowerComplaint.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, however, urged Democrats and Trump critics to slow down when studying the complaint, calling for a thorough investigation before impeachment. Still, she believes that the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) broke the law by withholding the whistleblower complaint.

That morning, DNI Joseph Maguire testified before Congress, stating that he believes that the whistleblower did "the right thing," calling the complaint "credible" and "important."

The White House appears to be scrambling for support in this latest controversy that has escalated investigations into the president's conduct to an all-time high. In their efforts to fight allegations, the White House "accidentally" sent a list of talking points to, of all people, presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders, who promptly posted them online and other journalists.

Regardless of what side of the isle you sit on as this impeachment inquiry heats up, there's truly only one appropriate GIF for such an email:

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