was included in this whistle-blower complaint, i can tell you the totality of that complaint is so disconcerting that a president of the united states could conduct himself in a manner that was so illegal. so why would why do you think that the white house would agree to release the whistle-blower complaint, which was unclassified, correct, and then classify it, it appears, at the last minute? what s going on here? i can t speak to the machinations of the white house. i m deeply troubled that based on this telephone conversation alone, there s not just one person that listened to this telephone conversation. many people in the white house had to have listened to that telephone conversation. and to have no one, no one
the complaint that the congress the two oversight committees have gotten has got some redactions in it, notably names of people. mm-hmm. but i think that s going to be hard to suppress. yeah. and the fact and this officer, whoever it is, needs to be commended for bravery, i think, under a very difficult circumstance because i think he s in somewhat, you know, legal limbo for what he s done. but he s apparently evinced a willingness to testify beyond just, you know, the bald read of his complaint. listen, i got so much to ask you. let me see where i want to go. let s go to the times report. the times in a separate report details president trump first pressed zelensky to coordinate with giuliani and investigate corruption. this was back in april within hours of his election victory, and they report that zelensky s aides have come to see the word corruption as code for investigating biden in 2016. it sounds like ukraine understands exactly what trump
conference was saying this is what senators and people in congress and other presidents do, though he says he didn t do it. is this i mean, to people who see this stuff in movies, you see mob bosses doing it, is this something presidents do? no, absolutely there is not something presidents do. presidents do not freeze aid to allies currently being invaded by adversaries, which is russia in the ukraine. he froze it. he wouldn t talk to the president of that country until the president agreed offline that he would have this conversation about biden and his son. and then he had the conversation said i ll have my personal attorney follow up with you. not his, you know, not somebody from within administration, his personal attorney. not somebody from the emba y embassy, not somebody from the treasury department. correct. rudy giuliani. exactly. and then not even restoring that aid until after this whistle
officials in the trump white house and concluded there was reason to believe the whistle-blower s complaint was substantiated. that according to the new york times. joining me now to discuss is jim sciutto, kaitlan collins, john dean. good to have all of you on this evening. thank you so much. kaitlan, i m going to start with you because you re outside of trump tower right now, and i m wondering if you re hearing anything from the white house on this new reporting about other white house officials who corroborate the whistle-blower s complaint? reporter: well, don, this is what s interesting because over the last several days before we really knew the details of this whistle-blower s complaint, you heard from the white house, from president trump and his top officials that they said they believed this whistle-blower was someone who was partisan, potentially disgruntled, someone who was essentially out to get the president, potentially a career employee. and now today as we re learn
it s unclear what prosecution trump is talking about and there is no public evidence that joe biden s son hunter biden was himself under investigation. president zelensky then says the next prosecutor will look into the situation. specifically to the company that you mentioned in this issue. president trump again says i will have mr. giuliani give you a call. this is now the fourth time he s brought up giuliani s name. the call ends with trump saying congratulations on a fantastic job you ve done. and a simple thank you from president zelensky and bye, bye. with that, as the backdrop, the whistle blower complaint landed in congress, the house and senate intelligence committee. sean patrick maloney sits on the panel. i spoke to him just before air time. congressman ma lonnie, obviously, the complaint is classified and there is certainly a lot you cannot say. you have read it. what was your overall reaction to what you read? well, as you point out, i can t discuss the details but i l