Donald Trump: the scandal is simple as a mysterious phone call?

Whose ? About what ? And why did a US intelligence officer feel compelled to make a formal complaint to his superiors about a call between a senior US government official and a foreign leader? These are the questions raised by Washington's new scandal, which is likely to give President Trump a hard time.

The congressional Democrats are determined to know the content of this complaint that the US administration has refused to give them for several weeks. They are all the more so since the Washington Post reported on Thursday, September 19, that the mysterious call was made by Donald Trump himself and that he made a "promise" deemed "disturbing" by the agent who reported it.

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"Fake news", immediately exclaimed the American president who claimed on Twitter that he would "only do what is right and good for the United States".

.... Knowing all of this, is anybody dumb enough to believe that I would only do what is right anyway, and only do good for the USA!

The case has significant shadows, but it is symptomatic of the climate of distrust between the Trump administration and a Congress dominated by Democrats who seek by all means to bring down the tenant of the White House.

The facts date back to early August 2019, shortly before the US president decided to disembark his national intelligence director, Dan Coats. On August 12, the Inspector General of American Intelligence Services receives a complaint filed under the procedure known as "whistleblower" that protects the anonymity of the agent.

The facts reported were considered sufficiently "legitimate" and "serious" for an investigation to be initiated. The complaint did not only refer to a call, but also to "several facts" that could have implications for US national security, according to the Washington Post.

From internal affairs to the small world of intelligence, the scandal takes a very public and political turn, when the Democratic leader of the Intelligence Committee of the House of Representatives reveals, on September 10, that the director of national intelligence has refused to provide the complaint to the elected officials. Democrats are saying that the law requires this kind of document to be forwarded to the commission - which has always been the case in the past - which the Department of Justice is challenging. Hence the revolt of the Democrats who see it as a new proof of obstruction on the part of Donald Trump.

Putin, the Emir of Qatar or the Ukrainian President?

Above all, they wonder what secret has pushed the White House to break with the tradition of cooperation between the executive and Congress on these issues. Finding the mystery interlocutor has become the new trendy treasure hunt in Washington. The suspicions first focused on Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom Donald Trump spoke with on July 31. A call that does not appear on the White House's official agenda, contrary to discussions that took place at the same time with the Dutch Prime Minister, that of Pakistan or with the Emir of Qatar. It took a Kremlin announcement in early August for the American public to learn about this phone call.

But, according to the Washington Post, it's actually an appeal to the new Ukrainian president, ex-comedian Volodymyr Zelensky, who has stirred the whistleblower. This discussion, which took place in early July, is already under investigation in the House of Representatives. Democrats wonder if the US president is not trying to pressure the Ukrainian government to open an investigation that could hurt the Democratic favorite for the 2020 presidential election: Joe Biden.

The conservative camp is looking very closely at the work done since 2014 by Hunter Biden, the son of the Democratic candidate, for the Ukrainian energy group Burisma Holding. He suspects him of having committed acts of corruption, and of having benefited from the help of his father, then still US vice-president, to escape prosecution. Rudolph Giuliani, Donald Trump's personal attorney, has publicly stated on several occasions that he would like Ukraine to open an investigation.

Democrats fear that the US president has used the weapon of US financial aid to push his Ukrainian counterpart to help weaken a potential opponent on the road to re-election. In August, the US media had discovered that the US administration had frozen a $ 250 million promised to Kiev to help fight the pro-Russian Ukrainian separatists. These revelations had raised an uproar: Democrats and Republicans had jointly criticized a decision deemed incomprehensible because it weakened an American ally and could only benefit Moscow.

Is the sending of these funds the famous "promise" mentioned in the whistleblower's complaint? This will probably be one of the main questions the Democrats will ask Joseph Maguire, the director of national intelligence, who has been summoned to answer the questions of elected officials next week, while Donald Trump, he will meet for the first time his Ukrainian counterpart on the sidelines of Volodymyr Zelensky's speech at the 74th session of the UN General Assembly in New York on 25 September.