The Intel Committees have reviewed the whistleblower complaint

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr told reporters his committee had received the whistleblower complaint shortly after 4 p.m. Members of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees and party leaders streamed in and out of a secure hearing room on Capitol Hill [...] to examine the document, which one lawmaker said was 10 to 12 pages long.

In a quick statement after viewing the report, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said: "I want to thank the whistleblower for coming forward."

"I found the allegations deeply disturbing and very credible. I can understand why the inspector general found them credible," Schiff said.

Democratic Congressman Mike Quigley told reporters the complaint "reinforces our concerns," and called it "disturbing" and "alarming."

[...]

Joseph Maguire, the acting director of national intelligence, will testify before the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday. He disputed a report by The Washington Post that he had threatened to resign if the White House tried to block him from talking about the complaint before Congress. "I have never quit anything in my life, and I am not going to start now," he said in a statement.

The whistleblower also wants to testify before the committee, according to Schiff.

  CBS

So maybe his search for his backbone turned up nothing.

Schiff added that "the idea that the Department of Justice would have intervened to prevent it from getting to Congress, throws the leadership of the department into further ill repute."

Both Swalwell and Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Texas), a loyal defender of President Trump, called on the whistleblower to testify.

Ratcliffe said he didn't think the report was that damaging, and that the information in it doesn't justify impeachment. He did say the report provided information that went beyond the transcript.

[...]

Sen. Ben Sasse called out Democrats for rushing to use the word "impeach," but added: "Republicans ought not to be rushing to circle the wagons to say there’s no there there when there’s obviously lots that’s very troubling there."

  Axios

He'll be getting a nasty tweet review.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was seen entering the restricted area where the report is being reviewed. She told reporters that she couldn't discuss the whistleblower complaint in detail because it had been "retroactively classified" by the Trump administration.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who as a member of the Gang of 8 was also permitted to view the complaint, said: “I’m even more worried about what happened than when I read the memorandum of the conversation. There are so many facts that have to be examined. It’s very troubling."

Swalwell told reporters the committee did not receive the full inspector general report that accompanies the whistleblower complaint, but said the whistleblower "invokes other witnesses to the disturbing conduct."

There are now more people shaking in their boots and perhaps lawyering up.



I bet.

He thought he'd save us a lot of time about the second call, too.  And thought it was perfect.  Making sure Pence doesn't come out without a scratch.

UPDATE: