The top U.S. spy official threatened to resign over concerns the White House might press him to withhold information from Congress in scheduled testimony on Thursday about a whistleblower complaint about President Donald Trump, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday.
Citing unnamed current and former U.S. officials, the Post said acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire told the White House he was not willing to stonewall Congress.
The White House immediately disputed the account. “This is actually not true,” White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham said in a tweet. Also, a spokeswoman for the director said that to her knowledge Maguire had not threatened to quit, according to the Post.
In a statement, Maguire said that “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. I am committed to leading the Intelligence Community to address the diverse and complex threats facing our nation.”
Maguire also immediately issued a statement shortly after the report was published insisting he had never threatened to quit.
It said the move was partly aimed at forcing the White House to make an explicit legal decision on whether it was going to assert executive privilege over the whistleblower complaint, which Maguire has so far withheld from Congress.
"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," DNI Maguire wrote in a written statement, per the 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."
Post sources claimed if there were efforts to block him from speaking freely about the complaint, while protecting the whistleblower, DNI Maguire had threatened to resign.
Maguire is set to testify in open and closed hearings Thursday about the whistleblower's complaint.
The White House declined to invoke executive privilege on the whistleblower's complaint and did not block Maguire from testifying. Also, the transcript of the July 25 call with the leader of Ukraine was released Wednesday, showing President Donald Trump did ask Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky to look into potential corruption complaints of former Vice President Joe Biden and/or his son Hunter.
Material from Reuters wire service was used in this story.
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