A senior Trump administration official told Fox News late Tuesday that the administration will release a document showing the intelligence community inspector general found the whistleblower who leveled an explosive accusation against President Trump concerning his talks with Ukraine had “political bias” in favor of “a rival candidate” of the president.

The official did not identify the name of the rival candidate. Separately, a senior administration official told Fox News the White House has been working as quickly as it can to release to Congress the whistleblower complaint involving President Trump's conversations with the leader of Ukraine, as long as it's legally possible.

The news came just hours after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi initiated a formal impeachment inquiry by alleging that the administration was hiding the complaint. Other top Democrats had previously said such an inquiry was already underway.

The senior administration official told Fox News that the White House had nothing to hide, that there has been no wrongdoing, and that the White House's general position has been that it will make everything possible available to Congress or the public regarding Trump's conversations with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and the complaint to the intelligence community's inspector general.

A source familiar with the matter told Fox News this week that the whistleblower had no firsthand knowledge of Trump's July call with Zelensky. Trump vowed earlier Tuesday to release a "complete" transcript of the call by Wednesday.

A senior administration official told Fox News there are a “few words” in the transcript that will raise eyebrows, but it is nowhere near as inflammatory as Democrats have suggested.

The contents of the call, as well as the whistleblower complaint, could throw cold water on Democrats' explosive suggestions that the president improperly threatened to withhold aid to Ukraine unless it investigated Joe Biden and his son Hunter. Republicans had predicted over the weekend that such an impeachment inquiry could backfire on Pelosi, and administration officials have said Trump was concerned only with broader corruption in Ukraine.


At the same time, at an event Tuesday, Pelosi intimated that impeachment would remain on the table, regardless of what the transcript showed. Many conservatives charged that she was moving the goalposts and lowering expectations.

"We have many other, shall we say, candidates for impeachable offenses in terms of the Constitution, but this one is the most understandable by the public," Pelosi said, referring to the Ukraine phone call allegation. "It's really important to know this: There is no requirement that there be a quid-pro-quo in the conversation."


Republicans said the move would prove to be a major political mistake.

"It is a colossal error," Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn told Fox News just prior to Pelosi's comments. "And, I’m kind of surprised that Speaker Pelosi, as shrewd as she is, would let it get to this point."

Swing district Rep. Mikie Sherrill, D-N.J., acknowledged to Fox News that supporting the impeachment inquiry "could" affect her electorally, but she maintained that Trump voters in her district "understand," and that Trump crossed a red line.

Trump, for his part, ripped into Democrats in a series of tweets immediately after Pelosi's comments, writing that "PRESIDENTIAL HARASSMENT" was in progress again.

In remarks to reporters at the United Nations on Monday, Trump denied linking the aid money to Ukraine's investigative actions. “No, I didn’t — I didn’t do it,” Trump said. But, he also repeatedly called the Bidens' actions in Ukraine a "disgrace," acknowledged that Biden had come up during the call and added: "It's very important to talk about corruption. ... Why would you give money to a country that you think is corrupt?"