U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ-09) today reacted gravely to the release of a whistleblower’s report on Donald Trump’s pattern of corruption stemming from a July 25, 2019 phone call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

“The brave whistleblower’s letter will go down as one of the most explosive documents in our national history. The whistleblower details a chief executive operating as two-bit gangster, using his sacred office for personal and political profit without a care for the nation he was elected to serve. The Acting Director of National Intelligence today said the whistleblower did the ‘right thing.’ Trump’s behavior cannot be described as anything but treachery.

“In our impeachment inquiry we will pursue the facts of Trump’s corruption as far as they go. Our course now is clear. Congress must hear from the whistleblower. Congress must hear from the officials the whistleblower cited as witnesses of Trump’s crimes, including White House aides, who can corroborate the whistleblower’s account. And Congress must subpoena and haul it for public questioning Rudolph Giuliani and William Barr, who were eager accomplices of Trump’s constitutional crime spree. Barr’s unfitness in his position has been manifest for some time and his impeachment by the House should be coupled with any impeachment hearings of Trump. Our nation’s chief law enforcement officer should not be Tom Hagan.

“I am dispirited but unsurprised by my Republican colleagues’ continued defense and open praise of Donald Trump’s actions. As the avalanche of evidence builds, I hope and pray Republican leaders will, at long last, decide to place their country over their party. But regardless of their course, that is what we are doing now.”