On Thursday the inspector general testified before the House Intelligence Committee stating that the acting director of national intelligence fought him from disclosing the whistle-blower complaint. This is a violation of law. The law is unequivocal. The D.N.I. staff — the D.N.I., director of national intelligence — shall provide Congress the full whistle-blower complaint.

For more than 25 years, I’ve served on the Intelligence Committee as a member, as the ranking member, as part of the Gang of Four, even before I was in the leadership. I was there when we created the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. That did not exist before 2004. I was there even earlier than the ’90s when we wrote the whistle-blower laws and continue to write them to ensure the security of our intelligence and the safety of our whistle-blowers.

I know what their purpose was. And we proceeded with balance and caution as we wrote the laws. I can say with authority the Trump administration’s actions undermine both. Our national security and our intelligence and our protections of the whistle-blowers. More than both.

This Thursday, the acting D.N.I. will appear before the House Intelligence Committee. At that time, he must turn over the whistle-blower’s full complaint to the committee. He will have to choose whether to break the law or honor his responsibility to the Constitution. On the final day of the Constitutional Convention in 1787, when our Constitution was adopted, Americans gathered on the steps of Independence Hall to await the news of a government our founders had crafted. They asked Benjamin Franklin: “What do we have? A republic or a monarchy?”

Franklin replied, “A republic, if you can keep it.” Our responsibility is to keep it. Because of the wisdom of our Constitution enshrined in three co-equal branches of government serving as checks and balances on each other. The actions taken to date by the president have seriously violated the Constitution especially when the president says Article II says, ‘I can do whatever I want.’ For the past several months, we have been investigating in our committees and litigating in the courts, so the House can gather all the relevant facts and consider whether to exercise its full Article I powers, including a constitutional power of the utmost gravity of articles of impeachment. And this week the president has admitted to asking the president of Ukraine to take actions which would benefit him politically.