iSmartNetwork Magazine The online magazine for you…
The intelligence community’s top watchdog arrived on Capitol Hill Friday morning amid an outcry over President Donald Trump’s open solicitation of assistance from Ukraine and China to target his political rivals.
Michael Atkinson, the intelligence community’s inspector general, is testifying behind closed- door before the House Intelligence Committee the day after a former top emissary to Ukraine supported lawmakers with damning text messages indicating how the White House was withholding critical military aid unless Ukraine’s president launched investigations targeting Trump’s political adversaries.
Top Democrats who originated from the ongoing classified hearing showed satisfied with Atkinson’s level of cooperation, is showing that he provided information corroborating a whistleblower’s complaint centering on Trump’s efforts to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden.
“He simply cemented the unity to seeing how thorough he was to corroborate, ” said Rep. Mike Quigley( D-Ill .), a member of the Intelligence panel. “Let’s threw this in perspective, tribes. What labour inspectors general said last time was, the whistleblower pulled the smoke alarm. We have recently been seen the smoke and the fire.”
Quigley added that Atkinson was “continuing to protect the whistleblower, ” whose credibility has come under attack from Trump and his allies. Atkinson deemed the complaint both “urgent” and credible after his review.
Atkinson’s appearance before the members of the committee on Friday was his first since the whistleblower ailment was released publicly, and lawmakers were eager to hear how he corroborated the whistleblower’s claims. It was unclear whether Atkinson would share his full report with committee members, but Democrats were insisting on it.
Atkinson returned to Capitol Hill as House Democrats intensify their impeachment inquiry against Trump, issuing subpoenas for witness testimony and documents to better understand Trump’s efforts to solicit foreign assistance to damage Joe Biden, a potential challenger in 2020.
If the committee acquires all or parts of Atkinson’s report, Democrats’ impeachment inquiry could speed up dramatically. In the meantime, the Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Oversight panels have been investigating Trump’s interactions with Zelensky and the extent to which State Department officials were facilitating Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer, who was in contact with Ukrainian officials seeing Biden.
Friday is also the deadline for Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to comply with a subpoena for documents related to State Department officials’ involvement with Giuliani as he sought to coordinate his efforts with Ukrainian officials.
Kurt Volker, the former U.S. special representative for Ukraine negotiations, witnessed behind closed- door for practically nine hours on Thursday about his knowledge of Trump’s efforts to pressure Zelensky to investigate Biden and other political opponents. In one of the contents released by House investigators late Thursday night, Volker suggested that Zelensky’s visit to Washington is contingent on him launching an investigation into the roots of the Russia investigation, a key priority of Trump and his allies.
Trump and his allies have sought to undermine the whistleblower’s credibility by asserting that the individual did not have first-hand knowledge of Trump’s phone call with Zelensky.
However, Acting Director Joseph Maguire told lawmakers last week that the complaint was “in alignment” with the rough transcript of the bellow, and whistleblower grumbles do not require first-hand knowledge of the events in question. In a statement earlier the coming week, Atkinson pushed back on those claims, saying the whistleblower “stated on the shape that he or she owned both first-hand and other information.”
Whistleblower protection constitutions require that a complaint be turned over to Congress when the inspector general deems it “urgent, ” as Atkinson did in this case. But Maguire withheld the complaint from the House and Senate intelligence committees after consulted in the Justice Department and the White House Counsel’s office.
Atkinson opposed Maguire’s decision and later briefed the Intelligence Committee. But he was unable to discuss the substance of the complaint during that briefing because Maguire had not yet authorized it to be released.
In recent periods, Trump and his allies have confiscated on the revelation that a Democratic staffer on the Intelligence Committee had brief linked with the whistleblower before he or she filed individual complaints. It’s part of a larger strategy to deflect criticisms from the president and instead hammer Rep. Adam Schiff( D-Calif .), the committee’s chairman.
“Chairman Schiff should be disqualified from extending investigation into the cases where his committee — members or staff — are fact evidences about contact with the whistleblower and the whistleblower process, ” Rep. John Ratcliffe( R-Texas) said after originating from the hearing.
Schiff’s staff has maintained that it is normal for whistleblowers to contact the committee for guidance before submitting a official complaint. A spokesman said earlier this week that the committee did not “review or receive the complaint in advance.”
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr( R-N.C .) said Atkinson’s briefing before his panel last week was “extremely helpful at trying to fill in some of the things we haven’t been able to pickup from published documents.”
Article originally published on POLITICO Magazine
Read more: politico.com
