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By Mark Hosenball and Jonathan Landay
WASHINGTON, Sept 19 (Reuters) - The U.S. House Intelligence Committee chairman on Thursday accused the Justice Department of blocking intelligence officials from giving Congress a whistleblower complaint reported to involve communications between President Donald Trump and a foreign leader.
The panel's Democratic chairman, Adam Schiff, charged the Trump administration with blocking a congressional inquiry after receiving a closed-door briefing from the inspector general for U.S. spy agencies.
A source familiar with the matter told Reuters the whistleblower complaint at the center of the dispute alleged "multiple acts" by Trump, not just a phonecall with a foreign leader as first reported on Wednesday by the Washington Post. The source requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
Trump on Thursday called the Post report "Fake News."
The dispute is the latest chapter of a power struggle in which the Trump administration has been resisting efforts by Democratic lawmakers investigating the president's business dealings and actions to obtain documents, records and testimony from White House and senior agency officials.
Reuters has not been able to confirm details of the whistleblower's complaint.
"I don't know whether the White House is directly involved, because we can't get an answer to that question, but we do know that they are making some claim that a privilege may apply," Schiff told reporters.
The dispute erupted after Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson told the committee in a Sept. 9 letter that he had received an Aug. 9 whistleblower complaint that he deemed urgent and credible, the legal threshold requiring its transmission to Congress.
But a Sept. 13 letter to the House panel and the Senate Intelligence Committee asserted that acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire - after consulting with the Justice Department - found tht the complaint did not meet the legal definition of "urgent concern."
In the letter, Jason Klitenic, general counsel in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, also said the complaint was not subject to disclosure because it did not concern conduct by an intelligence official or an intelligence activity overseen by the DNI, as required by the law.
"Furthermore, because the complaint involves confidential and potentially privileged communications by persons outside the Intelligence Community, the DNI lacks unilateral authority to transmit such materials to the intelligence committees," he wrote.