There’s “another Fake News” story out there, according to President Donald Trump, who took to Twitter on Tuesday to dispute claims that a whistleblower made over a phone call the president allegedly had with a foreign leader.
According to a report from The Washington Post , the president allegedly made a promise while on a phone call with a foreign leader, which a U.S. intelligence official found so worrisome that he filed an official whistleblower complaint with the inspector general for the intelligence community.
As the D.C. newspaper notes, neither the foreign leader nor the alleged promise have been revealed.
The president seemed to deny the allegations leveled against him by the whistleblower in a series of tweets Thursday morning.
“Another Fake News story out there – It never ends!” the president tweeted. “Virtually anytime I speak on the phone to a foreign leader, I understand that there may be many people listening from various U.S. agencies, not to mention those from the other country itself. No problem!”
In a follow-up tweet, Trump asked if anyone was “dumb enough” to believe he would say something inappropriate while on the phone with a leader of a foreign government knowing that the phone call was what he described as “heavily populated.”
The president continued, insisting that he would only ever do what was in the best interests of the United States.
In a third tweet sent directly after the first two, Trump took things a step further by implying that he was being unfairly targeted.
“Presidential Harassment!” Trump said.
Despite the president’s denial, The Washington Post reported that Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson found the threat to be credible and a matter of “urgent concern,” which means it requires immediate notification of Congressional oversight committees.
Meanwhile, Joseph Maguire, the acting director of national intelligence, has reportedly refused to share the details of the whistleblower’s claim with Congress. The Washington Post said this has triggered a political and legal battle that has caused some to claim that Maguire is acting inappropriately and attempting to protect the president.
The claims made by the unnamed whistleblower come exactly a week after House Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee voted to formalize an inquiry into potential crimes committed by President Trump, which could eventually result in his impeachment. According to a previous report from The Inquisitr, the inquiry will give committee chairman Jerry Nadler the ability to create committee and subcommittee hearings related to impeachment and allow for the questioning of witnesses behind closed doors.