The whistleblower who filed an explosive national-security complaint against President Donald Trump is a CIA officer who was once assigned to the White House, The New York Times reported Thursday.

The whistleblower said in the complaint, which was released to the public on Thursday morning, that they had heard from US officials that Trump was "using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election."

The Times described the whistleblower, whose name is still unknown, as a "CIA officer who was detailed to work at the White House at one point" and has since gone back to his post at the agency, citing three people familiar with his identity.

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The whistleblower who filed an explosive national-security complaint against President Donald Trump is a CIA officer who was once assigned to the White House, The New York Times reported Thursday.

The whistleblower said in the complaint, which was released to the public on Thursday morning, that US officials had told them that Trump was "using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election."

The complaint detailed concerns that in a July phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump undermined national security by pressuring the Ukrainian government to investigate the son of former Vice President Joe Biden, a Democratic presidential candidate, after withholding a nearly $400 million military-aid package.

Read more: The notes on Trump's call with Ukraine's president hint at a quid pro quo over investigating Joe Biden's son

Joseph Maguire, the acting director of national intelligence, told the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday that the whistleblower had followed exactly the legal procedure in coming forward and that the complaint was "in alignment" with a memo of the call released by the White House on Wednesday.

In the call, Trump emphasized the aid the US had given Ukraine before asking Zelensky for "a favor" by investigating CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity firm hired by the Democratic National Committee in 2016, and Hunter Biden, who served on the board of a Ukrainian oil and gas company called Burisma Holdings that was once the subject of an investigation by Ukraine's prosecutor general.

"There's a lot of talk about Biden's son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great," Trump said, according to the memo.

The Times described the whistleblower, whose name is still unknown, as a "CIA officer who was detailed to work at the White House at one point" and has since gone back to his post at the agency, citing three people familiar with his identity.

Read more: Acting DNI Joseph Maguire undermined the GOP's entire argument against the whistleblower in one sentence

The Times said that based on the complaint, the whistleblower was likely extremely knowledgeable about eastern European and Ukrainian politics and could have a legal background as well.

The Times was quickly criticized for revealing details about the whistleblower's identity. An attorney for the whistleblower, Andrew Bakaj, told The Times that "any decision to report any perceived identifying information of the whistleblower is deeply concerning and reckless, as it can place the individual in harm's way."

In a statement, The Times' executive editor, Dean Baquet, said the whistleblower's role and "place in the government" was "essential to understanding one of the most important issues facing the country — whether the president of the United States abused power and whether the White House covered it up."

The whistleblower said the complaint was based on information relayed by "more than half a dozen U.S. officials."

The complaint outlined concerns that Trump's efforts to engage the Ukrainian government in hurting a political rival might not only violate US campaign-finance law but "pose risks to U.S. national security and undermine the U.S. Government's efforts to deter and counter foreign interference in U.S. elections."