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Letter from Harris, Whitehouse, and Blumenthal to Barr re: Trump Request for News Conference about His Call with Zelensky Whistleblower Complaint on Ukraine (Kelly Smith, comp.) 1 (11/8/2019)

handle is hein.presidents/usgvtwht0141 and id is 1 raw text is: tnitd *tatcs $cnatr WASHINGTON, DC 20510 November 8, 2019 The Honorable William P. Barr Attorney General U.S. Department of Justice 950 Pennsylvania Avenue. NW Washington, D.C. 20530 Dear Attorney General Barr: This letter is a request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. § 552. On November 6. 2019, The Washington Post reported that President Trump requested that you, acting in your official capacity as the United States Attorney General, hold a news conference to declare that he had broken no laws during the July 25, 2019, phone call in which he pressured Ukrainian President Volodvmvr Zelensky to investigate his political rival.' As you are aware, President Trump's conversation with the leader of Ukraine is the subject of a whistleblower complaint alleging that President Trump was using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election. The whistleblower's complaint has since been corroborated by multiple officials who have testified before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Reportedly, shortly after the White House released a summary of the call on September 25, 2019, President Trump told White House officials of his desire for the attorney general to appear publicly and personally deliver the message to the news media that Mr. Trump had done nothing wrong, much as [the attorney generalj did in a news conference he held shortly before the release of the report by Robert S. Mueller III. 'White House officials in receipt of the president's ask allegedly passed it along to the Justice Department, where you are reported to have declined the request.4 The whistleblower's complaint and the summary of the president's phone call were, however, reviewed by Justice Department prosecutors, who declined to investigate the matter and instead concluded that the president's actions did not violate campaign finance laws.5 The Justice Department spokeswoman then issued a statement saying that DOJ's Matt Zapotosky, Josh Dawsey, and Carol D. Leonnig, Trump warned Barr to hold news conference saving the president broke no laws in call with Ukrainian leader, WASH. POST, Nov. 6, 2019, 2 Unclassified Whistleblower Complaint (Aug. 12, 2019) at 1, ' Michael D. Shear. Michael S. Schmidt, and Maggie Habermian, Attorney General Declined Trump Request to Declare Nothing illegal in Ukraine Call, N.Y. TiMES, Nov. 6, 2019, htps:hwwwri.nvtimnes.comn20 1/i l/6/us/poitis/rp-iiaum-barr-ukramne-ca1htm i. Id. (Mr. Barr declined, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.). Devlin Barrett. Matt Zapotosky, Carol D. Leonnig, and Shane Harris, Trump offered Ukrainian president Justice Dept. help in an investigation of Biden, memo shows, WASI. POST, Sept. 26, 2019, 1

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