Image source, Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call/Getty Images

Texas Republican Congressman Will Hurd has tweeted from inside the committee room while Congressman Devin Nunes was speaking.

The former CIA officer called for Congress to speak directly with the anonymous whistleblower.

Hurd, the only black Republican in the House, is not seeking re-election in 2020.

He is one of the last remaining members of his party in Congress critical of Trump.

Hurd has spoken out repeatedly against Trump, saying the president was harming the Republican party.

House Intelligence Committee second-in-command, Republican congressman Devin Nunes, begins with a rebuttal.

"I want to congratulate the Democrats on their latest informational warfare operation against the president and their extraordinary ability to once again enlist the mainstream media in their campaign."

"This operation began with media reports," he accuses.

"They don't want answers, they want a public spectacle," he says about Democrats and the press, insisting the complaint is based on "hearsay".

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Drew Angerer/Getty Images

The whistleblower complaint states that Trump personally suspended aid to Ukraine just days before his 25 July call with Ukraine's president.

"On 18 July, an Office of Management and Budget (OMB) official informed Departments and Agencies that the President 'earlier that month' had issued instructions to suspend all US security assistance to Ukraine. Neither OMB nor the NSC staff knew why this instruction had been issued. During interagency meetings on 23 July and 26 July, OMB officials again stated explicitly that the instruction to suspend this assistance had come directly from the President, but they still were unaware of a policy rationale."

Image source, Alex Wong/Getty Images

The whistleblower also notes Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani's efforts to meet with a top Ukrainian aide.

The report states: "I also learned from multiple US officials that, on or about 2 August, Mr Giuliani reportedly travelled to Madrid to meet with one of President Zelensky's advisers, Andriy Yermak. The US officials characterized this meeting, which was not reported publicly at the time, as a 'direct follow-up' to the President's call with Mr Zelensky about the 'cases' they had discussed."

Image source, Getty Images

Democratic Chairman Adam Schiff, who leads the House Intelligence Committee, begins by accusing Trump of a "classic organised crime shakedown".

"In essence, what the President Trump communicates is this: We’ve been very good to your country. Very good.

"No other country has done as much as we have. But you know what, I don’t see much reciprocity here. You know what I mean?

"I hear what you want. I have a favour I want from you, though. And I’m going to say this only seven times, so you better listen good. I want you to make up dirt on my political opponent, understand?

"Lots of dirt, on this and on that. I’m going to put you in touch with people, and not just any people. I’m going to put you in touch with the Attorney General of the United States - my Attorney General, Bill Barr - he’s got the whole weight of American law enforcement behind him.

"And I’m going to put you in touch with Rudy [Giuliani], you’re going to love him. Trust me.

"You know what I’m asking, so I’m only going to say this a few more times, in a few more ways. And don’t call me again. I’ll call you when you’ve done what I asked."

The whistleblower said they were partially motivated by Trump and his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani's public statements.

"On 9 May, the New York Times reported that Mr Giuliani planned to travel to Ukraine to press the Ukrainian government to pursue investigations that would help the President in his 2020 reelection bid.

"In his multitude of public statements leading up to and in the wake of the publication of this article, Mr Giuliani confirmed that he was focused on encouraging Ukrainian authorities to pursue investigations into alleged Ukrainian interference in the 2016 US election and alleged wrongdoing by the Biden [sic].

"On the afternoon of 10 May, the President stated in an interview with Politico that he planned to speak with Mr Giuliani about the trip.

"A few hours later, Mr Giuliani publicly cancelled his trip, claiming that Mr Zelensky was "surrounded by enemies of the [US] President... and of the United States."

"On 13 June, the President told ABC's George Stephanopoulos that he would accept damaging information on his political rivals from a foreign government.

"On 21 June, Mr Giuliani tweeted: 'New Pres of Ukraine still silent on investigation of Ukrainian interference in 2016 and alleged Biden bribery of Poroshenko. Time for leadership and investigate both if you want to purge how Ukraine was abused by Hillary and Clinton people.'"

The whistleblower was "not a direct witness" to most of the events described.

But the whistleblower adds: "However, I found my colleagues' accounts of these events to be credible because, in almost all cases, multiple officials recounted fact patterns that were consistent with one another."

More explosive details from the whistleblower complaint:

"According to multiple White House officials I spoke with, the transcript of the President's call with President Zelensky was placed into a computer system managed directly by the National Security Council (NSC) Directorate for Intelligence Programs.

"This is a standalone computer system reserved for codeword-level intelligence information, such as covert action. According to information I received from White House officials, some officials voiced concerns internally that this would be an abuse of the system and was not consistent with the responsibilities of the Directorate for Intelligence Programs.

"According to White House officials I spoke with, this was 'not the first time' under this Administration that a Presidential transcript was placed into this codeword-level system solely for the purpose of protecting politically sensitive - rather than national security sensitive - information."

Image source, Getty Images

More from the whistleblower complaint:

"Multiple US officials told me that the Ukrainian leadership was led to believe that a meeting or phone call between the President and President Zelensky would depend on whether Zelensky showed willingness to 'play ball' on the issues that had been publicly aired by [former Ukrainian prosecutor general] Mr [Yuriy] Lutsenko and Mr Giuliani."

The whistleblower says that on 14 May, Trump instructed US Vice-President Mike Pence to cancel his planned visit to Ukraine to attend Zelensky's inauguration, which took place on 20 May. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry led the delegation instead.

"According to these [US] officials, it was also 'made clear' to them that the President did not want to meet with Zelensky until he saw how the Ukrainian president "chose to act" in office."

"Starting in mid-May, I heard from multiple US officials that they were deeply concerned by what they viewed as [Trump's personal lawyer] Mr [Rudy] Giuliani's circumvention of national security decision-making processes to engage with Ukrainian officials and relay messages back and forth between Kiev and the president."

The complaint adds that Department of State officials sought to "contain the damage" by speaking to Ukrainian officials about the "differing messages they were receiving from official US channels on one hand and from Mr Giuliani on the other".

The complaint says that White House officials tried to cover up the details of the call between Trump and the Ukrainian president.

"In the days following the phone call I learned from multiple US officials that senior White House officials had intervened to 'lock down' all records of the phone call, especially the official word for word transcript of the call that was produced - as is customary - by the White House Situation Room.

"This set of actions underscored to me that White House officials understood the gravity of what had transpired in the call."

The unclassified document states: "This interference includes, among other things pressuring a foreign country to investigate one of the President's main domestic political rivals."

The complaint says Trump's conduct, which the whistleblower says they did not witness firsthand, constitutes "a serious or flagrant problem, abuse, or violation of law".

The whistleblower complaint on Trump and Ukraine has just been released.

And it accuses Trump of "using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the US 2020 election".

Image source, Getty Images

Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire has just been two months in the job.

He’s barely had time to get his feet under the desk, and now he finds himself in the gladiator arena of a congressional hearing.

The US intelligence chief, who refused to release a whistleblower complaint at the centre of an impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump, is undergoing a day of hearings before the House and Senate intelligence committees.

Maguire will no doubt face hostile questions about his decision to withhold from lawmakers until Wednesday an anonymous complaint - that a government inspector general considered "credible" and of "urgent concern" weeks ago - about President Trump.

Democrats in Congress say Maguire broke the law by slow-walking the complaint.

Little is known about the complaint itself, but it has generated allegations that Trump withheld US aid as leverage to prod Ukraine into helping him smear his US Democratic political opponent Joe Biden and his son, Hunter.

In a 25 July phone call with the Ukrainian president, Trump did request that Ukraine investigate the Bidens, according to a summary of that call released by the White House on Wednesday.

A clear majority of House Democrats has backed an abuse of power that demands an inquiry into whether Trump should be removed from office.