A month after giuliani spoke with ukrainians, the president threatened to withhold 250 million in military aid to ukraine. Three weeks later, investigations were launched into whether they were pressuring ukrainians to help mr. Trumps reElection Campaign. A few days after that, the Trump Administration abandoned the effort to withhold military aid. And now cnn has learned the white house and Justice Department advised the intelligence chief to withhold the whistleblowers complaint from congress. Joining us now is Washington Post congressional reporter and political analyst carmen. Thank you. With ept to get to your reporting for the Washington Post. Tell us what you know about the ukrainian connection. Well, we know this we had initially reported that the whistleblower complaint was due to President Trump making a promise to a foreign leader. Now its clear the connection is to ukraine. If we know its about ukraine, that brings into focus all the interactions he was having with the ukrainian president at the same time giuliani was talking about pushing for trying to get the ukrainians to investigate the biden connection due to the former Vice President , current potential challenger to President Trumps sons connection to a company there. All we can say for certain is that there appears to be a ukraine connection to the case of the whistleblower who was concerned about the promise the president was making to the foreign leader. But we know that was happening around the same time as all of these other elements were at play. In case its hard for people to piece together, heres a timeline. Well put a timeline on the screen of how this worked. On july 25th, President Trump and ukraines president spoke on the phone. Late july, giuliani met with the ukraine president s top representative. Right. August 12th, the whistleblower files the complaint. By the end of august, President Trump moves to block ukrainian aid. September 9th, three house committees launch an investigation of this ukrainian outreach. This is before the whistleblower. And then september 12th, a hold on ukraine aid lifted. So it just does feel as though there was a lot of activity after the time that the president President Trump and ukrainian president spoke on the phone. There was a lot of activity before it appears during and after that whistleblower did file that complaint. It took two weeks of the i. G. For the Intelligence Community investigating it before it got past the intersecter of National Intelligence. He was then supposed to have a sevenday window to pass it to congress. Thats where we are at an impasse right now. The house Intelligence Committee, the whistleblower and the i. G. Want congress to have this information. But the acting director of National Intelligence, the Justice Department, it appears the white house, too, do not. Just to put a finer point on all of that. Here is your reporting in tthe post that also explains more context. Two and a half weeks before the complaint was filed, trump spoke with ukrainianed. Zelensky who was elected in a landslide in may. That call is already under investigation by House Democrats who are examining whether trump and giuliani sought to manipulate the Ukrainian Government into helping trumps reElection Campaign. Do full transcripts of all these phone calls with the president and foreign leaders exist . And are congressional oversight committees entitled to those . The congress is entitled to ask for any of these sorts of communication especially when it pertains to intelligence matters. Yes, the president does not get on the phone with foreign leaders and just have that be a random call nobody is aware of. They want to know who else was in the room with the president , who else may have been on the call from the u. S. Side and ukrainian side because this potentially involves so many other actors. Pushing with the various ukrainians that have been brought into the mix. But as we have seen before, when investigators in congress ask for this information, they have been traditionally in this presidency met with resistance. We see that happening again. We see the Justice Department, the director the acting director of National Intelligence and the white house are resisting this request for the whistleblower complaint that comes on top of asking for the substance of the call with the ukrainian president and multiple other things pertaining to the president s interactions with foreign leaders, things that pertain to the russia investigation and so on and so n on. This is not just a basic oversight thing. You have a law about whistle blowers that actually says this information needs to be turned over to congress. And so it is potentially flouting of that very specific law thats designed to protect the ability of whistle blowers to come forward. And because its of the nature the substance of this, many of the democrats feel this is so egregious, so urgent, that if there were ever a case to use, congress has potential to levy fines and such, this is it. Because the Court Processes take a long time as weve seen. Its never clear how theyre going to turn out. Lawmakers somehow foresaw this scenario and created a law for it. And well see if that now stands. Karoun, thank you for sharing with us. Joining us now josh campbell. Josh is the author of a brand new book. Crossfire hurricane inside Donald Trumps war on the fbi. The details are important here in the questions who has authority and jurisdiction too. To me there are still three basic questions new this morning. Number one, did the president pressure ukraine to go after a political rival joe biden . Number two, why did the Inspector General a trump appointee find this to be of urgent concern . And number three, why is the white house and why are the Justice Department trying to cover this up or keep this from congress . I base this, asha, he half answered some of these questions which is did you order the code red . He said youre damn right i did. Did the president talk to the ukrainian president about what he wanted done with joe biden and Paul Manafort . I never asked him that. I wouldnt care if he did. He had every right to do it as the president of the United States. Rudy also said that he did, he pressured ukraine. He said if the president did it, thats okay. Yeah. This was like o. J. Describing how he did it. You know, he is wrong on that front. It is not okay for the president to use his president ial authority to get an action by a Foreign Government that will benefit him politically especially in an election. We literally went through a two and a half year investigation about these very topics. You know, its like we need to i dont know. Have a School House Rock or something. No foreign interference. And this time with russia they claimed that it just dropped in their lap. Seeking it out here. And theyre now trying to normalize it, but it is clearly outside of the balance of the president s article two authorities. Where does that lead us getting into what Rudy Giuliani said last night . You look at the mueller report, they talk about these questionable instances of trying to get dirt. Thats behind us and we need another investigation. So lets go do something else. Maybe this was mueller. Maybe we need to bring him back. I think we have to focus on at the same time there is the act itself, what rudy is talking about. And as you mentioned, this Inspector General report, someone inside the government who is so concerned about what he or she saw, they want to bring it to the attention of investigators. We always hear the coverup is worse than the crime. I dont think that is the case here. Its pretty serious going to o Foreign Government to try to get assistance in a Foreign Government helping us in our election. I will say, if rudys claim saying if the president did it its okay, if he feels that way, come clean. Exactly. So this doesnt make any sense. In other words, if hes saying this is completely fine, then theres no reason for this to be privileged. Why are they blocking the contents of this . Why to go to your second question, john, and why this was so important, Election Security. Protecting our infrastructure, protecting the integrity of the process. And that is what the Intelligence Community has been looking into the last two years. And so that is why i think he believed it fell in their jurisdiction. I suspect the dni was trying to maybe categorize it as a diplomatic organization. So i think were gegt these kind of semantic definition differences behind the scenes. Heres whats so mind blowing. There are laws against this. Theyre explicit. There are laws that dictate how a whistleblower comes forward. This whistleblower did exactly that process. Went by the letter of the law and still theyre not acknowledging it or whatever. Theyre not allowing it to go forward to congress. And there are laws against foreign interference. This is spelled out. And somehow i guess because everyone understands the Legal Process takes a long time, somehow democrats or congress feel stymied to work with this. Such a good point when you mention the law itself. Weve seen the destruction of norms. He came in to disrupt washington and weve seen this kind of blasting of norms even throughout the mueller investigation. This influence on the Justice Department which you couldnt look and find the law. As you mention, this is a law thats on the books. Its important to point that out. Because that also means that there is yet another branch of government who might have a role to play here. Thats the courts. I think adam schiff had alluded to that yesterday. Look, we may have to litigate this. As you mention, its clear. This isnt just this nebulous, hes powerless to mention it. When you talk about the legal aspect of this, i wonder right now my former colleagues and i, i wonder what theyre doing. Public corruption is one of those cases where ive seen it time again where an fbi agent picks up the newspaper and sees something they think might be information and allegation of some type of crime. So i wonder what theyre doing right now. Rudy giuliani makes the case the president is within his right to ask any government to ferret out corruption in any place that he wants to, right . What is the shortcoming of that argument . What makes it different in this case . Yes. Certainly the United States and the president United States can encourage companies to weed out corruption. The problem here is he is doing it against a particular individual who is who may be his political opponent. In other words, he gets a benefit from it. Theres a conflict there. Hes also from what we understand using something as leverage to, you know, his kind of authority for that personal benefit. And that is also potentially criminal behavior. Whether its bribery or foreign corrupt practices act. This isnt an official position of the United States towards another country. This is a private benefit he would be getting. We know from the reporting that the conversation that is of such concern to the whistleblower and the Inspector General was about ukraine or concerns ukraine. We also know that House Democrats are investigating the president and Rudy Giuliani or want to about what they were leaning on ukraine to go after this. What we dont have yet is the reporting doesnt go as far as to say that this r that is exactly and definitively what the Inspector General is about. We dont know that based on this reporting. We know all these things are happening at the same time. Did he say as much . Rudy said its okay if the president pressured the ukraine but nobody has made the definitive connection. What we know is the whistleblower complaint isnt based on just one phone call. I guess there were a series of connections that so alarmed this person. Weve seen a pattern of trips by giuliani, mike pence. I mean, you know, this is even on other fronts and quite overt, actually, there have been many contacts of communication. It makes sense it may not just be one. This as you mentioned you cant quite piece them together. One thing we cant lose sight of is out there in the Intelligence Committee is someone who did the right thing, that went through the proper channels. There was something that concerned them. So that person is still there and is a potential witness. If the House Democrats can do something about this or if the courts step in, that person is going to be a key person they want to talk to. Josh, asha, thank you very much. Breaking overnight, Emergency Responders rescuing nearly 150 people in Southeast Texas from deadly floods gripping that state. Ed lavandera is live in beaumont, texas, with more. What are you seeing . Reporter good morning, alisyn. Here in Southeast Texas today it will be about cleanup. Hundreds of cars stranded along roadways. Interstate 10 where truckers are still trying to figure out how far they can go. One here described this storm as delivering a sucker punch. Southeast texas under water. Theres been a lot of water that has fallen on this city. Reporter still reeling after a tropical depression hammered the area. Residents were frantically trying to escape the rising waters. In beaumont, airboats surveying flooded streets for those stranded. Are you coming with us . We might not be able to come back. Reporter going door to door to help people evacuate. Local officials scrambling to help everyone they could. We were in the car and the water was rising pretty fast. So i got out and saw the Police Standing on the bridge and i started screaming and they start screaming back. They came all the way down to the car and walked us back up here. Reporter in harris county, hundreds of high water rescues. Tragically one man lost his life after driving into nearly eight feet of floodwaters. The vehicle did come to a pause. For some unknown reason he punched it and tried to drive through it more. Reporter roads turned to rivers, cars stranded on houston highways, drivers forced to abandon their vehicles. I feel all right. I was on my way to the dentist. This is pretty bad. Its so much in so fast a time. Reporter people struggling in neckdeep water. This man was spotted floating down this street. One family spotted an alligator in the floodwaters near their home. That county has received more than 40 inches of rain. The most wild thing i have ever seen. Like, this is so much worse than harvey. Reporter and john and alisyn, this is exactly the thing weve heard over and over here in Southeast Texas. Just two years after hurricane harvey, the flashbacks caused by this storm are real. Very same images we saw two years ago seeing again this morning. Ed, thank you so much for your reporting on that. Please keep us posted. Question this morning. Did the president lean on a foreign country to go after a political opponent . We have new reporting this morning of what congress will do about it. Thats next. At fidelity, we believe your money should always be working harder. 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