- Click to share on Facebook (Opens in a new window)
- Click to share on Twitter (Opens in a new window)
- Click here to share on LinkedIn (Opens in a new window)
- Click to email a friend (Opens in a new window)
Washington (CNN) - The White House on Friday acknowledged that administration officials ordered that a transcript of the call to Ukraine now publicly available be filed in a highly classified system, confirming the allegations contained in a complaint of informants who have affected to Washington.
In a statement provided to CNN, a senior White House official said the measure to put the transcript in the system was directed by lawyers from the National Security Council (NSC).
"The NSC lawyers ordered that the classified document be handled properly," said the senior White House official.
White House officials say the transcript was already classified, so they didn't do anything wrong by moving it to another system.
The admission gives greater credibility to the description of the informants' complaint of how the transcription of July 25 with the Ukrainian president, among others, was kept out of circulation by using a system for highly sensitive documents.
But the statement did not explain whether someone else in the White House was part of the decision to include the transcription of Ukraine in the most restrictive system.
READ : Informant says that using the intelligence system administrator to block transcription was "abuse" of the system
Nor did he deepen an accusation in the complaint that other phone call transcripts were handled similarly.
The suggestion that officials tried to hide the contents of the phone call, during which Trump suggested to his Ukrainian counterpart to order an investigation into Joe Biden and his son, has led to accusations of disguise. There is no evidence of irregularities by Biden or his son.
LOOK : These are the most critical points of the call between Trump and Zelensky
The transcript of the Ukrainian phone call, which the White House made public on Wednesday, did not contain information such as intelligence secrets or military plans that would normally deserve to be transferred to a highly classified system.
Officials familiar with the matter say Trump and others in the White House sought to restrict access to phone calls with foreign leaders after shameful leaks at the beginning of the administration.
The White House statement on Friday indicates an effort to paint the practice as sanctioned by lawyers and overseen by the National Security Council, rather than a politically motivated attempt to prevent Trump's talks from being made public.
Trump himself lashed out at the complainant on Thursday for revealing information about his phone call to the relevant authorities.
READ : The key part of the informant's complaint that represents the biggest threat to Trump
“I want to know who the person is, who is the person who gave the information to the complainant? Because that's near a spy, ”Trump said during a private event in New York. “Do you know what we used to do in the old days when we were smart? True? Spies and betrayal, we used to handle it a little differently than we do now. ”
Kevin Liptak of CNN contributed to this report.
Informants