US Acting Director of National Intelligence, Joseph Maguire, debunked a Washington Post allegation that he threatened to resign if the White House forbade him from testifying without restraint before Congress on the whistleblower complaint which led to the Trump impeachment.
“At no time have I considered resigning my position since assuming this role on Aug. 16, 2019. I have never quit anything in my life, and I am not going to start now,” Maguire said, according to a tweet posted by the White House account.
The report alleged, citing unnamed “current and former US officials familiar with the matter,” that Maguire warned the White House from attempting to stonewall him from testifying before Congress, where he is scheduled to speak this Thursday.
Maguire allegedly informed the administration of US President Donald Trump that he will cooperate with lawmakers unless the White House makes an “explicit legal decision” on whether it will assert executive privilege over the whistleblower complaint, the report said.
Earlier Tuesday, Maguire made his only public comment on the issue.
“In light of recent reporting on the whistleblower complaint, I want to make clear that I have upheld my responsibility to follow the law every step of the way,” Maguire said, according to Post. “I am committed to protecting whistleblowers and ensuring every complaint is handled appropriately. I look forward to continuing to work with the Administration and Congress to find a resolution regarding this important matter.”
The complaint in question referred to a 25 July phone call. According to the transcript, published Wednesday, Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to see whether Joe Biden was involved in the firing of Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin during the Poroshenko administration.
Democrats connected the Trump request to a halting of military funds which took place around that time and claimed that the situation constituted a ‘quid-pro-quo’, in the form of international political racketeering. They used this allegation to justify the impeachment announced Tuesday.