To the Editor:

Re “Claim on Trump Is Said to Involve a Foreign Leader” (front page, Sept. 20):

Donald Trump has said, “I have the right to do whatever I want as president.” Indeed this is mostly true. The president not only has broad powers but he can even be spared legal consequences as long as he remains in office. This was made painfully clear in the Mueller investigation.

There are, however, red lines. The founding fathers did allow for congressional oversight and action in the event of a bad actor who would use the office of the presidency in service of himself rather than in service of the country. Now there is a whistle-blower in the intelligence community who has urgent information about the president that he believes Congress needs to know. It is information that Mr. Trump and the Justice Department would rather see withheld from Congress.

If speculations are true, and the president himself or through an emissary threatened to withhold vital military aid to Ukraine if it did not investigate business dealings of former Vice President Joe Biden’s son or pursue a corruption investigation of Mr. Biden himself, that type of quid pro quo would be deeply troubling. It is the definition of politically self-serving.

Lawlessness is rampant in the Trump administration. If we want to restore the rule of law to our republic and faith in our democracy, we must insist that the whistle-blower be permitted to speak, come what may.