WASHINGTON, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) -- A top Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives has threatened possible legal action if intelligence officials continued to withhold information related to a potentially explosive whistleblower complaint involving President Donald Trump's alleged inappropriate interactions with a foreign leader.

Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire has been withholding the whistleblower complaint from the House intelligence committee, a decision which infuriated House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, who on Thursday called Maguire's refusal to share the information "unprecedented."

"We do know that the Department of Justice has been involved in the decision to withhold that information from Congress," Schiff said. "We cannot get an answer to the question about whether the White House is also involved in preventing this information from coming to Congress."

The Washington Post and The New York Times both reported, citing anonymous sources, that at least part of the complaint involved Ukraine.

Trump reportedly communicated with the foreign leader and made an unspecified "promise," which an unidentified intelligence official considered so troubling that the official filed a whistleblower complaint in mid-August with the inspector general for the intelligence community, an independent watchdog.

"We do not have the complaint. We do not know whether the press reports are accurate or inaccurate about the contents of that complaint," said Schiff. "We're determined to do everything we can to determine what this urgent concern is to make sure that the national security is protected."

The inspector general, Michael Atkinson, wrote in a letter to Schiff dated Sept. 17, "I set forth the reasons for my concluding that the subject matter involved in the Complaint's disclosure not only falls within the DNI's jurisdiction, but relates to one of the most significant and important of the DNI's responsibilities to the American people."

"Given the inspector general said this is urgent, it can't wait," Schiff said.

Trump took to Twitter on Friday morning, saying "The Radical Left Democrats and their Fake News Media partners, headed up again by Little Adam Schiff, and batting Zero for 21 against me, are at it again!"

"They think I may have had a 'dicey' conversation with a certain foreign leader based on a 'highly partisan' whistleblowers statement," the president wrote. "Strange that with so many other people hearing or knowing of the perfectly fine and respectful conversation, that they would not have also come forward."

"Do you know the reason why they did not? Because there was nothing said wrong, it was pitch perfect!" he added. Enditem

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