President Donald Trump has long shown he cannot be trusted with the kind of sensitive intelligence that presidents routinely deal with. Whether spilling classified information to a Russian diplomat regarding Israel, or tweeting an intelligence photo from inside Iran, or publicly siding with Russian leader Vladimir Putin over U.S. intelligence agencies, Trump has demonstrated repeatedly that he doesn't have the judgment or self-control to safeguard America's most important secrets.

Now, a whistleblower from the intelligence community has sounded the alarm over a conversation Trump had with a foreign leader — possibly Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky — and a mysterious promise Trump may have made to that leader. But the administration is withholding the complaint from Congress, possibly illegally.

Given Trump's history of carelessness with intelligence, it's urgent that appropriate members of Congress get full access to the whistleblower's complaint. Congress must speak with one voice to demand it.

The few details that are known are chilling. According to information first reported by The Washington Post, a phone conversation between Trump and a foreign leader, and the unspecified promise Trump made, was so troubling that a U.S. intelligence official took the rare step of filing a formal whistleblower complaint. The Intelligence Community Inspector General — a Trump appointee — deemed the complaint "credible" and of "urgent concern," the standard for mandatory disclosure to Congress.

Subsequent reporting suggests the foreign leader may be Zelensky, the Ukrainian president. Before the whistleblower's complaint, Congress was already investigating whether Trump may have tried to garner the Ukrainian government's help in his reelection campaign.

Trump's acting director of intelligence, apparently backed up by his Justice Department, is saying the whistleblower's complaint won't be turned over to Congress, despite a law that apparently mandates it, because the complaint's contents aren't covered by that law. There's no way to know if that's true, though, if even members of Congress with security clearance aren't allowed to see the complaint. The Justice Department is headed by Attorney General William Barr, who successfully misled the nation about the contents of special counsel Robert Mueller's report on Russian interference.

Trump chimed in via Twitter, scoffing at the idea that anyone would be "dumb enough to believe that I would say something inappropriate with a foreign leader." His inappropriate discussions with foreign leaders have been well documented since the early days of his administration.

This is the same president whose previous carelessness with intelligence caused U.S. officials to frantically extract a top covert asset from Russia for fear the person could be exposed and endangered.

Congressional review would be justified in any other case involving even a president who had demonstrated normal competence with sensitive intelligence matters. In this case, the circumstances desperately cry out for investigation. No member of either party in Congress should accept anything less.

REPRINTED FROM THE ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

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