The whistleblower's complaint checks out A member of the U.S. intelligence community filed a whistleblower complaint this summer, alleging that President Trump asked Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden, a potential Democratic opponent in 2020. That fact is not in dispute and has been confirmed by the White House. But Trump's request to Ukraine is now at the center of an impeachment inquiry in Congress, and as Democrats turn up the heat, the president has been challenging the whistleblower's credibility. "The Whistleblower's facts have been so incorrect about my 'no pressure' conversation with the Ukrainian President," Trump tweeted this week. He's way off-base and we gave him Four Pinocchios. It will be up to Congress to determine whether Trump has been "using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election," as the whistleblower alleged. But thus far, with the exception of some minor details, virtually all of the specific points of the complaint have held up and been confirmed by additional information, documents and reporting. For example, the whistleblower alleged: Trump in a phone call asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to "initiate or continue an investigation" into Biden. (Correct.) Trump raised a conspiracy theory involving the Internet security company CrowdStrike. (Correct.) Trump told Zelensky to "meet or speak" with his lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and Attorney General Bill Barr. (Correct.) U.S. officials intervened to "lock down" records of the call. (Correct.) Enjoy this newsletter? Forward it to someone else who'd like it! If this e-mail was forwarded to you, sign up here. Hear something fact-checkable? Send it here, we'll check it out. What's behind the fires in the Amazon? As smoke poured into Sao Paulo, the fires raging across the Brazilian Amazon sparked international outrage. Some were quick to blame Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro for the flames. But Bolsonaro pointed to a dozen possible reasons for why the fires intensified, including blaming nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). His environment minister blamed the weather. Environmentalists blamed agribusiness. Former Maryland congressman John Delaney (D) blamed Trump's trade war with China. They can't all be right, so we took a hard look at these claims. History shows that this kind of uptick in fire activity happens when there is less oversight, and that can be brought on by an economic downturn or government policy changes. We reviewed satellite imagery and go in-depth into each of the claims in our video fact check, part of a YouTube series from The Fact Checker. We're always looking for fact-check suggestions. You can also reach us via email, Twitter (@GlennKesslerWP, @mmkelly22, @rizzoTK @SarahCahlan or use #FactCheckThis), or Facebook (Fact Checker). Read about our rating scale here, and sign up for the newsletter here. Scroll down for this week's Pinocchio roundup. | 
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