Speaker Nancy Pelosi Nancy PelosiDemocratic senator to party: 'A little message discipline wouldn't kill us' Overnight Health Care: New wave of COVID-19 cases builds in US | Florida to lift all coronavirus restrictions on restaurants, bars | Trump stirs questions with 0 drug coupon plan Overnight Defense: Appeals court revives House lawsuit against military funding for border wall | Dems push for limits on transferring military gear to police | Lawmakers ask for IG probe into Pentagon's use of COVID-19 funds MORE (D-Calif.) on Thursday went after President Trump Donald John TrumpFederal prosecutor speaks out, says Barr 'has brought shame' on Justice Dept. Former Pence aide: White House staffers discussed Trump refusing to leave office Progressive group buys domain name of Trump's No. 1 Supreme Court pick MORE's head of national intelligence, saying the acting Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Joseph Maguire "broke the law" in withholding a whistleblower complaint from Congress.



"What the DNI did was broke the law. The law is very clear: The DNI 'shall' convey the complaint to the Intelligence committees — not the whole Congress — to the Intelligence committees," Pelosi said during a press briefing in the Capitol.



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Pelosi, who was a member of the House Intelligence Committee in 2004 when the DNI position was created, said the law was "carefully balanced to protect our intelligence and to protect the whistleblower.""So he has to convey it," she said.Pelosi's comments came in the midst of Maguire's testimony before the House Intelligence Committee, where he was grilled from both sides over the complaint from a government whistleblower detailing Trump's July call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in which Trump suggested he would withhold U.S. military aid to Ukraine unless Zelensky investigated corruption allegations against former Vice Presidentand his son.The notion that Trump would press a foreign leader to attack a domestic political rival sparked a firestorm on Capitol Hill, leading scores of Democrats to support an impeachment inquiry into the president's conduct — a formal step Pelosi took Tuesday.Testifying before the committee, Maguire defended his decision to withhold the whistleblower report, saying he consulted with Department of Justice (DOJ) officials, who determined the White House had the authority to block the release by invoking executive privilege."Authority I do not have the privilege to waive," Maguire said.Pelosi rejected that claim, questioning why Maguire would consult with the DOJ since Attorney Generalhas been wrapped up in the Ukraine saga. Trump, according to a readout of the call, had suggested Zelensky consult with Barr in investigating the Bidens."The very idea that the subject of the complaint is who he went to to find out if it was OK to go forward, I think, is wrong," Pelosi said. "I don't think it's nefarious, I just think it's wrong, and it's against the law."

Pelosi said she read the whistleblower complaint on Wednesday, after Trump agreed to release it to the House and Senate Intelligence committees. The House panel released it publicly Thursday morning. Of the phone call with Zelensky, Pelosi said Trump "betrayed his oath of office, our national security, and the integrity of our elections."

Of the subsequent efforts by the White House to conceal the details of the call, she was equally sharp.



"This is a cover-up," she said. "This is a cover-up."



Pelosi said the focus of the Democrats' impeachment inquiry, while including various investigations being conducted by six separate committees, will now necessarily focus on the Ukraine episode.



"It is an intelligence matter and it is focused in the Intelligence Committee," she said.



"This is the focus of the moment because this is the charge. All of the other work that relates to abuse of power, ignoring subpoenas of Congress, contempt of Congress by him, those things will be considered later," she said.



Pelosi also pushed back against those liberals who believe there's already plenty of evidence that Trump has committed impeachable offenses — and want to vote on impeachment articles immediately.



"There are some in our caucus who think, 'Let's just have an impeachment.' No, we have to have an inquiry to further establish the facts," Pelosi said. "There is no rush to judgment, and in some ways we are a jury, open to what might be exculpatory or not."