Trump says whistleblower complaint relates to 'totally appropriate conversation'

U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday told reporters a whistleblower complaint that has roiled Washington relates to a "totally appropriate conversation" he had. Trump, speaking in the Oval Office, said he did not know the identity of the whistleblower or the precise allegations but that all of his conversations with foreign leaders were always appropriate.

"It's a partisan whistleblower," Trump said. "It's just another political hack job. That's all it is," the Republican president said.

The Trump administration is in a standoff with leaders of the Democrat-controlled U.S. House of Representatives over the Aug. 12 complaint from a whistleblower within the intelligence community, reported to involve Trump's communications with a foreign leader. An intelligence community watchdog determined that the complaint was credible, related to an urgent matter, and should be shared with congressional leaders through a process laid out by U.S. law.

That determination was overridden by acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire after consulting with the Justice Department. "It was a totally appropriate conversation," Trump said, of the conversation at the heart of the whistleblower complaint. "It was actually a beautiful conversation."

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