A whistleblower's report that was submitted to the inspector general for the intelligence community centers on an interaction between President Trump and a foreign leader, the Washington Post reported Wednesday, citing two former U.S. officials.
The Trump administration has plunged into a showdown with Congress over access to a whistleblower's reported complaint about incidents including a private conversation between President Donald Trump and a foreign leader.
The government's intelligence watchdog says the blocked complaint is "serious" and "urgent."
The administration is keeping Congress from even learning what exactly the whistleblower is alleging, but the intelligence community's inspector general says the matter involves the "most significant" responsibilities of intelligence leadership. One report said it involved a promise Trump made in a phone call to a foreign leader. A lawmaker said the complaint was "based on a series of events."
The inspector general appeared before the House intelligence committee behind closed doors Thursday but declined, under administration orders, to reveal the substance of the complaint.
The identity of the whistleblower and details of the claim remain unknown – but the Post reported that the interaction between Mr. Trump and the foreign leader involved a "promise."
Mr. Trump denied that he said anything inappropriate to a foreign leader, writing on Twitter Thursday that the Post report was "Fake News."
Maguire said he determined the allegations did not merit "urgent concern," and since they relate to a person outside the intelligence community, he is not required to pass them along to Capitol Hill.
Schiff pointed out that this is the first time a Director of National Intelligence has overruled a determination from the inspector general, and raised concerns that the refusal may be a sign of a cover-up to protect the president.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday after the inspector general appeared before the committee, Schiff said that his committee still does not have access to the report. He said that it was unclear whether "the White House is directly involved" in keeping the report private.
"We do know that they are making some claim that a privilege may apply," Schiff said about the White House. "There are other institutions involved that are preventing us from getting the complaint."
Schiff said Sunday on "Face the Nation" that it's fair to assume the report involves "the president, or people around him, or both."