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Legal showdown looms over House subpoena to intel director

The acting director of national intelligence is refusing to comply with a subpoena to turn over a whistleblower complaint, setting up a legal showdown this week between the Trump administration and the House.

FILE - In this July 24, 2019, file photo, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., speaks during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington. The chairman of the House intelligence committee has issued a subpoena to the acting Director of National Intelligence, saying that he is withholding a whistleblower complaint from Congress. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
FILE - In this July 24, 2019, file photo, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., speaks during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington. The chairman of the House intelligence committee has issued a subpoena to the acting Director of National Intelligence, saying that he is withholding a whistleblower complaint from Congress. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)Read moreSusan Walsh / AP
    by Associated Press, The Associated Press
    Published 

WASHINGTON — The acting director of national intelligence is refusing to comply with a subpoena to turn over a whistleblower complaint , setting up a legal showdown this week between the Trump administration and a House committee.

The House Intelligence Committee chairman tells CBS' "Face the Nation" that intelligence chief Joseph Maguire declined to release the complaint because he was instructed not to by a "higher authority" since it involves privileged communications.

Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff says no intelligence director has ever refused to turn over a whistleblower complaint to Congress.

Schiff says the committee will "do everything necessary" to get the complaint.

The committee is requiring that Maguire testify Thursday unless he complies with the subpoena.

Schiff isn’t revealing the subject of the whistleblower’s complaint.