WASHINGTON (NYTIMES) – US President Donald Trump had already been briefed on a whistle-blower’s complaint about his dealings with Ukraine when he unfroze military aid for the country in September, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Lawyers from the White House counsel’s office told Mr Trump in late August about the complaint, explaining that they were trying to determine whether they were legally required to give it to Congress, the people said.

The revelation could shed light on Mr Trump’s thinking at two critical points under scrutiny by impeachment investigators: his decision in early September to release US$391 million (S$533.63 million) in security assistance to Ukraine and his denial to a key ambassador around the same time that there was a “quid pro quo” with Kiev.

Mr Trump used the phrase before it had entered the public lexicon in the Ukraine affair.

Mr Trump faced bipartisan pressure from Congress when he released the aid.

But the new timing detail shows that he was also aware at the time that the whistle-blower had accused him of wrongdoing in withholding the aid and in his broader campaign to pressure Ukraine’s new President, Mr Volodymyr Zelensky, to conduct investigations that could benefit Mr Trump’s re-election chances.

The complaint from the whistle-blower, a CIA officer who submitted it to the inspector-general for the intelligence community in mid-August, put at the centre of that pressure campaign a July 25 phone call between the presidents, which came at a time when Mr Trump had already frozen the aid to the Ukrainian government.

Mr Trump asked that Mr Zelensky “do us a favour”, then brought up the investigations he sought, alarming White House aides who conveyed their concerns to the whistle-blower.

The White House declined to comment.

The whistle-blower complaint, which would typically be submitted to lawmakers who have oversight of the intelligence agencies, first came to light as the subject of an administration tug of war.

In late August, the inspector-general for the intelligence community, Mr Michael Atkinson, concluded that the administration needed to send it to Congress.

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