April 20, 2026
Mr. Scott of Florida submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
Expressing the sense of the Senate by condemning the handling of the 2019 Ukraine Whistleblower Complaint, calling for the Department of Justice to initiate an investigation and prosecution of the matter, and declaring the impeachment of President Donald J. Trump by the House of Representatives lacks legitimacy.
Whereas, on April 13, 2026, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard declassified and released documents and transcripts revealing serious procedural failures and concealments in the handling of the August 2019 whistleblower complaint regarding President Trump’s July 25, 2019, telephone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky;
Whereas the complaint, which was filed by an analyst of the Central Intelligence Agency who had no firsthand knowledge of the aforementioned telephone call, relied entirely on second- and third-hand accounts, with key witnesses admitting the alleged quid pro quo was clear only in hindsight
and required reading between the lines
;
Whereas, although the whistleblower self-disclosed significant potential biases, including registration as a member of the Democratic Party, close professional work with then-Vice President Joe Biden on Ukraine matters (including travel to Ukraine with Vice President Biden and participation in discussions on Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko’s corruption), and personal grievances stemming from his service on the National Security Council during the first Trump presidency, former Inspector General of the Intelligence Community Michael Atkinson redacted or concealed these deeper conflicts from investigators from the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence of the House of Representatives during his testimony on 2019 in which he disclosed only limited information;
Whereas the whistleblower admitted to misleading investigators about prior contacts with Democratic staff of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence of the House of Representatives and requested that the complaint be hidden from Republican members of the committee;
Whereas, in 2016, then-Vice President Joe Biden publicly boasted of withholding $1,000,000,000 in United States loan guarantees to pressure Ukraine into firing Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin, an action that occurred while Biden’s son Hunter served on the board of Burisma Holdings, raising legitimate questions about potential conflicts of interest that the whistleblower’s complaint sought to shield from scrutiny;
Whereas these concealed biases, procedural irregularities, and reliance on unsubstantiated claims formed the very basis of the 2019 impeachment proceedings, which resulted in the impeachment of President Trump by the House of Representatives on December 18, 2019: Now, therefore, be it
That the Senate—
(1)
condemns the concealment of material bias information and the use of a flawed complaint to initiate impeachment proceedings against a sitting President;
(2)
calls upon the Department of Justice to promptly initiate a thorough, independent investigation into the handling of the 2019 Ukraine whistleblower complaint, including potential violations related to false statements, improper redactions, abuse of the whistleblower process, and coordination with congressional staff;
(3)
urges the Attorney General to pursue appropriate criminal prosecutions to the extent warranted by the evidence, consistent with the rule of law and without regard to political affiliation, to restore public confidence in the integrity of the intelligence community and congressional oversight;
(4)
declares that the 2019 impeachment of President Donald J. Trump by the House of Representatives, which was predicated on a concealed and deficient complaint, lacks legitimacy and the facts and circumstances upon which Articles of Impeachment were based neither met the burden of proving that President Trump committed high Crimes and Misdemeanors
nor established that President Trump engaged in insurrection of rebellion against the United States
; and
(5)
commends Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard for her transparency and accountability in declassifying these materials and sharing the truth with the American people.