between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in which Trump pressed the Ukrainian government to investigate Trump's political rival, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., and his family). The whistleblower's complaint was deemed credible and a matter of "urgent concern" by the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community (IGIC). Under federal law, when the IGIC determines that a complaint credibly raises an urgent concern, he or she forwards it to the relevant agency head (here, the DNI), who is required to forward it to the congressional intelligence committees within seven days. In this case, however, Maguire, withheld the complaint from Congress. Maguire's refusal prompted the House committee to issue a subpoena to Maguire, ordering him to either immediately hand over the whistleblower's complaint to Congress or give testimony to the House Intelligence Committee explaining why he was refusing to do so. Schiff accused Maguire of illegally withholding a properly submitted whistleblower complaint in an unprecedented way, and said that the matter raised "serious concerns about whether White House, Department of Justice or other executive branch officials are trying to prevent a legitimate whistleblower complaint from reaching its intended recipient, the Congress, in order to cover up serious misconduct." Schiff said Maguire has cited a "higher authority, someone above the DNI" in his refusal to turn over the whistleblower complaint. According to a report in The Washington Post, Maguire threatened to resign as acting DNI over concerns that the Trump administration might attempt to constrain his testimony to Congress over the intelligence whistleblower's complaint. The report said Maguire had "expressed his displeasure to White House counsel Pat Cipollone and others that the White House had put him in the untenable position of denying the material to Congress over a claim that it did not fall within his jurisdiction as leader of the intelligence community". In a statement, Maguire denied that he had contemplated resigning saying, "At no time have I considered resigning my position since assuming this role." Maguire initially refused to testify before the House Intelligence Committee at a hearing on September 19, but later agreed to give testimony on the whistleblower complaint in an open session of the House Intelligence Committee on September 26. It was unclear whether Maguire had "forced the White House to acquiesce and allow him to testify without constraint". In a statement, Maguire said he had followed the law "every step of the way...