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Peters Letter to Ferriero re: Retention/Disposal of Presidential Records Whistleblower Complaint on Ukraine (Kelly Smith, comp.) 1 (10/16/19)

handle is hein.presidents/usgvtwht0093 and id is 1 raw text is: 




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                                   October 16 201 N

T  e HI onorable David S. Ferriero
ArchiisU oft the Untited States
U.SS National ArchiveI and Records Administration
8601 Adelphi Road
CollASHINGTN P rk. M                                       2D 74

De  Honorabler. Davied i ri:

On  September 25. 2019, the White House released a memorandum roughly transcribing a July
5,  2019 call between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.'
During the course of this conversation, President Zelensky thanked President Trump for the aid
and support provided by the United States to Ukraine, and President Trump asked that Ukraine
investigate allegations in\Tolving a potential political rival in the 2020 Presidential election.

I am deeply alarmed by President Trump's requests during this call and actions reportedly taken
to suspend congressionally appropriated military and security aid for Ukraine approximately one
week prior to this call. I am ftrther troubled by allegations in a whistleblower complaint,
released publicly on September 26, 2019. that the White House attempted to lock down
records of President Trump's July 25, 2019 call. This disclosure received a preliminary review
from the Intelligence Community Inspector General (IG), who determined it appeared credible
and met the deilnition of an urent concern.3

The whistleblower complaint alleges that a word for word transcript of the call was not stored
on a computer system t)pically used for such records but instead moved to a standalone
computer system. managed by the National Security Council Directorate for Intelligence
Programs. that is reserved for codeword-level intelligence information.4 A senior White House
official has since confirmed that the memorandum of the telephone conversation was stored on
this more secure system. The whistleblower complaint states that this move was made at the

I Memorandum of Telephone Conversation, Telephone Conversation with President Zelenskyy of Ukraine (July 25,
2019) (Declassified by order of the President Sept. 24, 2019).
2 Trump ordered /ci on milat'y aid das hebre calling Ukrainian president, r/icials say, Washington Post (Sept.
23, 20 19) (https. :/SII.wash i ngtonpost.comInational-security/trump-ordered-hold-on-military-aid-ays-before-
cal ling-ukrainian-presidentoficials-say/2019/09/23/dtv)a6ca-de3 8-I I e9-SdcS-498eabc I 29aostoryhtmli).
Letter from Michael K Atkinson. Inspector General of the Intelligence Community. to Joseph Maguire. Acting
Director of National Intelligence (Aug. 26, 2019).
4 Letter to Chairman Richard Burr, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and Chairman Adam Schiff. House
Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (Aug. 12, 2019)
(https://intelligence~house.gov/uploadedflles!20 190812 - whistleblower complaint unclasspdf) (hereinafter
.etter to Chairmen Burr and Schiff')
  White House MSc Lawyers Direaed Moving Ukraine Transcript to Highl Secure System. CNN (Sept. 27, 2019)
(https://wwwivcon. com/201I9/09/27/politics/donald-trump-ukraine-transcript-white-houseindex. html).

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