Thank you. Ms. Divine. Thank you, mr. Maguire, for being here. We appreciate your life of Public Service. My question relates to prior to the transmission on august 26 from the ig to the dni, were there any conversations that you had with the ig prior to august 26 related to this matter . Congresswoman, theres been a lot thats happened in the last several weeks. As far as the timeline is concerned, i think that id like to get back to you and give you a full chronology if i may on the actual timeline of events. That would be very helpful to this committee in terms of, if there were any preliminary conversation, what was discussed and if there was any action taken as a result of those conversations. I want to turn to the complaint itself which is made public for the American Public to read. Let me preface this by saying i greatly appreciate your statement that you believe the whistleblower is operating in
good faith. I think thats very important for americans to hear. But on page one, and im not going to improvise for Parity Purposes like the claire man did. Ill quote it directly. On page one the complaint reads, quote, i was not a direct witness to most of the events described. This seems like a very important line to look into, and i think the American Public will have questions in particular about that line. So my question to you is, for the record, did the ig fully investigate the allegations into this complaint at this time . Has the ig fully investigated the allegations in this complaint . As i said earlier, congresswoman, i believe the Intelligence CommunityInspector General did a thorough investigation with the 14daytime frame that he had. And under that timeline, to the best of his ability, made the determination that it was both credible and urgent. I have no reason to doubt that Michael Atkinson did anything but his job. So when you talk about a full
investigation, were the veracity of the allegations in the complaint looked into . There were many references to white house officials. Do you know if the ig spoke with those white house officials . Do you know if he investigated, again, the truthfulness of these allegations . Or was it a preliminary investigation . Congresswoman, id have to defer to the ig to respond to you on that. But i do know although i do not know the identity of the whistleblower, i do know that Michael Atkinson had, in fact, discussed this with the whistleblower and found his complaint to be credible. As far as who else he spoke with, im Unweaware Of What Wen On into Michael Atkinsons investigation into this matter. So as of today, the only individual we know the ig spoke with is the complainant, is the author and the whistleblower . Congresswoman, what im saying is im unaware who else Michael Atkinson may have spoken
to. Im just unfamiliar with his investigative process and everybody that he spoke to in this regard. Thank you for the answer on the record. Again, for the American Public, theyre going to have many questions as they read this complaint today. Because on page one it says no direct knowledge, i think its very important that we conduct that we have questions answered for individuals that do have direct knowledge. With that i yield back. Thank you, congresswoman. Mr. Swalwell. Thank you. Mr. Maguire, do you agree the defers of a coverup is an attempt to prevent people from discovering a crime . Id say thats close. Im sure theres others. I dont disagree with that, sir. In the whistleblowers complaint, the whistleblower alleges that immediately after the president s call with the president of ukraine on july 25 white house lawyers moved quickly to direct white house officials to move electronic
transcripts from one Computer System where it was normally stored to a secret classified information system. Is that right . Congresswoman i apologize. Is that what was alleged in the whistleblower complaint . Yes or no. Congressman, sir, all i know is that was the allegation im asking you that. Thats the allegation. You read that allegation, and the first people that you go to after you read that allegation are the white house lawyers who are telling the white house officials who see this transcript and move to it a secret compartmentalized system. Yes or no . Yes. Im going to keep going here. You get this complaint. Inspector general says urgent, credible. You have no wiggle room to not go to congress, and instead you send your concern to the subject of the complaint, the white house. So did the white house tell you after you sent your concern
about privilege, did they tell you to go to the Department Of Justice next . My team, my counsel in consultation with the Intelligence CommunityInspector General went to the office of Legal Counsel. And we were not directed to do that. Mr. Maguire, you said this did not involve on going intelligence activities. However, the whistleblower says this is not the first time that the president s transcripts with foreign leaders were improperly moved to an Intelligence Community code ware system. Is that the allegation . I believe thats in the letter. It can speak for itself. What can also speak for itself, if a transcript with a foreign leader is improperly moved into a Intelligence Community classification system, that would involve your responsibilities, is that right . Not necessarily. I do not it is not underneath my authority and responsibility. And once again, this is an allegation that has been made. It does not necessarily mean that that is a true statement. The allegation was determined to be urgent and credible by the Inspector General. Is that right . Yes, it was. Would you also want to know considering that you are the director of National Intelligence and transcripts are being moved to a secret intelligence system, whether other transcripts, perhaps the president s phone calls with vladimir putin, with mbs of vapor erdogan of turkey or kim jongun, would you want to know if those were also being improperly moved because the president is trying to cover up something . Congressman, how the white house, the Executive Office Of The President and the National Security council conduct their business, is their business. Its actually your business to protect americas secrets . Its all of ours. This committee as well. If theres Coverup Activity because the president is working
improperly with a Foreign Government, that can compromise americas secrets, is that right . Congressman theres allegations of a coverup. Im sure an investigation might lead credence or disprove that. Right now all we have is an allegation for secondhand information from a whistleblower. I have no knowledge on whether or not that is true and accurate statement. The Department Of Justice opinion you relied upon said you were not responsible for preventing foreign Election Interference. Is that right . That was in the opinion . What the office of Legal Counsel did was over 11 pages gave an opinion defining and explaining their justification for it not complying with urgent are you responsible for preventing Election Interference . Election interference by a government government. Congressman. I hope you know the answer is yes or no. Are you responsible for preventing Election Interference . Election interference. I really hope you know the
answer. Its a priority of the Intelligence Committee. Is it your priority . Yes, it is. This alleges a shakedown by the president of the yates, someone who has no clearance, no authority under the United States and an effort by the white house to move the transcript of this call to a secret system. Thats at least what is alleged. Congressman i believe Election Security is my most fundamental priority. This complaint focused on the conversation of the president with another foreign leader, not Election Security. I yield back. Thank you, congressman. And if that conversation involved the president requesting help in the form of intervention in our election, is that not an issue of interference in our election . Mr. Chairman, once again, this was sent to the federal
bureau of investigation i understand that. Youre not suggesting, are you, that the president is somehow immune from the laws that preclude a u. S. Person from seeking help in a u. S. Election, are you . What im saying, chairman schiff, is that no one, none of us is Above The Law in this country. Mr. Hurd. Thank you, chairman. Its a pleasure to be here with you. I tell my friends all the time ive gotten more surveillance as a member of congress than as an Undercover Officer in the cia. I think youve gotten more arrows shot at you since youve been dni than almost four decades on the battlefield. A specific question, the letter thats contained in the whistleblower package is actually dated august 12th. And i recognize this may be a better question to be asking the icig. That letter is dated august 12th and its to the chairman on the select committee of intelligence and the chairman of this
committee. Do you know if the whistleblower provided that letter to those two chairmen concurrently with the icig . No, congressman. As i said earlier, i believe that the whistleblower and the icig acted in good faith and followed the law every step of the way. Good copy. Weve talked about the way the law on the whistleblower statute says you shall share if its decided to be an urgent concern. However, Best Practices has always been to share regardless of whether that urgent concern. Do you see any reason, negative impact on the Intelligence Community if that legislation was changed to say all Whistleblower Complaints should be shared with the committees . Thats correct. And in addition to that, congressman, lets just say the allegation was made against a member of this committee. Member of this committee,
although youre the Intelligence Committee, are not members of the Intelligence Community. As the dni, i have no authority or responsibility over this committee. But my question is do you think that, if every whistleblower complaint that was brought to the Intelligence CommunityInspector General was always shared with this committee, would that have any impact on intelligence equities . I ask that because i dont know why when the statute was written it didnt say all should be shared rather than only urgent concern. As the head of the Intelligence Community, if we changed that law, would it have impact on intelligence equities . I dont think the law can be changed to cover all things that might possibly happen. I think we have a good law. I think it is well written. However, as i said, congressman, this is unprecedented and this is a unique situation, why were sitting here this morning. Sure and i hope were not in this position again. However, if we do find ourselves in this position again, i want to make sure there is not any uncertainty as to when information should be shared with this committee. Was the odni under you or your predecessor aware of an omb decision to suspend ukrainian aid as was alleged in this complaint . As far as im concerned personally, congressman, no, i have no knowledge of that. Im unaware of anybody within the odni is aware of that. I dont know the answer to that. Again, i apologize for a lot of these legal questions that may be best directed at somebody else, but i feel like you have a perspective. When does olc, office of legislative Legal Counsel. Legal counsel, excuse me, guidance, Override Laws passed by congress . The office of Legal Counsel does not Override Laws passed by congress. What it does is it passes legal
opinion for those of us in the executive branch. And the office of Legal Counsel legal opinion is binding to everyone within the executive branch. Good copy. I have two final questions and ill ask them together to give you the time to answer them both. Yes, sir. What is your assessment of how intelligence operations in general are going to be impacted by this latest episode . When i say episode, im referring to the media circus, the political circus, the technical issues that are related to this whistleblower revelation . You alluded to it in some of your previous questions, but i would like your assessment on how this could impact intelligence operation in the future. And i do believe this is your first time testifying to congress in your position, right . I would welcome in the end i know this is a little off topic, what do you see our greatest challenges and threats to this country as the director ofNational Intelligence . Let me answer the latter part of that. I think the greatest challenge we face is not necessarily from a kinetic strike with russia or china or iran or north korea. I think the greatest challenge that we do have is to make sure we maintain the integrity of our election system. We know right now there are foreign powers who are trying to get us to question the validity on whether or not our elections are valid. So first and foremost, i think that protecting the sanctity of our elections within the United States, whether it be national, city, state and local, is perhaps the most important job that we have with the Intelligence Community. Outside of that, we do face significant threats. Id say number one is not necessarily kinetic, but cyber. This is a cyber world. We talk about with the great competition taking place with russia and china. Were building ships and weapons to do that. In my estimation, the great competition with these countries is taking place right now and doing that in the cyber my time is i think running out. The broader implications on intelligence operations of this current whistleblower situation. Well, i will tell you, in light of this, i clearly have a lot of work as the leader of this community to do to reassure that the Intelligence Community, that, in fact, im totally committed to the whistleblower program. And im absolutely, absolutely committed to protecting the anonymity of this individual as well as making sure that Michael Atkinson who is our icig continues to be annual to do his job unfeted. With that i certainly have to be proactive with my communications with my team. Mr. Chairman, i yield back the time i may or may not have. Mr. Castro. Thank you, chairman. Thank you, Director Maguire for
your testimony today. I want to say thank you, also, to the whistleblower for having the courage and bravery to come forward on behalf of the nation. Thank you to mr. Atkinson, also, the Inspector General for his courage in coming forward to congress. You mentioned that you believe the whistleblowers report is credible, that the whistleblower is credible, that the whistleblower acted in good faith. Youve had a chance now, as we have and i believe the American People have, have had an opportunity to review both the whistleblower complaint and the transcript that was released of the phone call between the president of the United States and the president of ukraine. Youve read both documents by now, havent you . Yes, congressman. Would you say the whistleblowers complaint is remarkably consistent with the transcript that was released . I would say that the whistleblowers complaint is in alignment with what was released yesterday by the president. Okay. I want to read you a quick section of both to underscore exactly how accurate and
consistent this complaint is. On page two of the whistleblowers complaint the whistleblower says according to the white house officials who had direct knowledge of the call, the president pressured mr. Zelensky to and theres a few bullet points. The first one says initiate or continue an investigation into the activities of former Vice President joseph biden and his son hunter biden. The third bullet point, meet or speak with two people the president named explicitly as his personal envoys on these matters, mr. Giuliani and Attorney General barr to whom the president referred multiple times in tandem. In the transcript that was released on page four of the first paragraph into what looks like the third sentence, President Trump says the former ambassador from the United States, the woman, was bad news and the people she was dealing with in the