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https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/whistle-blower-s-complaint-is-said-to-involve-multiple-acts-by-trump/ar-AAHxDU9?li=AA30Nm
Quote:A potentially explosive complaint by a whistle-blower in the intelligence community said to involve President Trump was related to a series of actions that go beyond any single discussion with a foreign leader, according to interviews on Thursday.
The complaint was related to multiple acts, Michael Atkinson, the inspector general for American spy agencies, told lawmakers during a private briefing, two officials familiar with it said. But he declined to discuss specifics, including whether the complaint involved the president, according to committee members.
Separately, a person familiar with the whistle-blower’s complaint said it involves in part a commitment that Mr. Trump made in a communication with another world leader. The Washington Post first reported the nature of that discussion. But no single communication was at the root of the complaint, another person familiar with it said.
The complaint cleared an initial hurdle when Mr. Atkinson deemed it credible and began to pursue an investigation. But it has prompted a standoff between lawmakers and the acting director of national intelligence, Joseph Maguire, who has refused to turn it over to Congress, as is generally required by law. It has become the latest in a series of fights over information between the Democratic-led House and the White House.
Democrats emerged from Mr. Atkinson’s briefing and renewed their accusation that the Trump administration was orchestrating a cover-up of an urgent and legitimate whistle-blower complaint that could affect national security.
Representative Adam B. Schiff, Democrat of California and the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, told reporters after the briefing that he still did not know the contents of the complaint and had been unable to get an answer to whether the White House was involved in suppressing it.
“I don’t think this is a problem of the law,” he said. “I think the law is written very clearly. I think the law is just fine. The problem lies elsewhere. And we’re determined to do everything we can to determine what this urgent concern is, to make sure that the national security is protected and to make sure that this whistle-blower is protected.”
Mr. Schiff said he would explore potential recourse with the House’s general counsel to try to force the release of the complaint, including potentially suing for it in court.
Few details of the whistle-blower complaint are known, including the identity of the world leader involved in the single known communication. And it is not obvious how an exchange between Mr. Trump and a foreign leader could meet the legal standards for a whistle-blower complaint that the inspector general would deem an “urgent concern.”
Under the law, the complaint has to concern the existence of an intelligence activity that violates the law, rules or regulations, or otherwise amounts to mismanagement, waste, abuse, or a danger to public safety. But a conversation between two foreign leaders is not itself an intelligence activity.
And while Mr. Trump may have discussed intelligence activities with the foreign leader, he enjoys broad power as president to declassify intelligence secrets, order the intelligence community to act and otherwise direct the conduct of foreign policy as he sees fit, legal experts said.
Mr. Trump regularly speaks with foreign leaders and often takes a freewheeling approach. Some current and former officials said that what an intelligence official took to be a troubling commitment could have been an innocuous comment. But there has long been concern among some in the intelligence agencies that the information they share with the president is being politicized.
Andrew P. Bakaj, a former C.I.A. and Pentagon official whose legal practice specializes in whistle-blower and security clearance issues, confirmed that he is representing the official who filed the complaint. Mr. Bakaj declined to identify his client or to comment.
Mr. Trump denied wrongdoing on Thursday, explaining that he would not “say something inappropriate” on calls where aides and intelligence officials from both sides routinely listen in.
But Mr. Trump’s actions were startling enough to prompt the intelligence official to file a formal whistle-blower complaint on Aug. 12 to the inspector general for the intelligence agencies. Such a complaint is lodged through a formal process intended to protect the whistle-blower from retaliation.
Mr. Schiff has been locked in the standoff with Mr. Maguire over the complaint for nearly a week. He said Mr. Maguire told him that he had been instructed not to give the complaint to Congress, and that the complaint addressed privileged information — meaning the president or people close to him were involved.
Mr. Schiff has said that none of the previous directors of national intelligence, a position created in 2004, had ever refused to provide a whistle-blower complaint to Congress. The House Intelligence Committee issued a subpoena last week to compel Mr. Maguire to appear before the panel. He briefly refused but relented on Wednesday, and is now scheduled to appear before the committee in an open hearing next week.
Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate intelligence panel, said on Thursday that he and the committee’s Republican chairman, Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina, also expected both the inspector general and acting director to brief them early next week and “clear this issue up.”
Mr. Maguire and Mr. Atkinson are at odds over how the complaint should be handled. Mr. Atkinson has indicated the matter should be investigated, and alerted the House and Senate Intelligence committees, while Mr.
Maguire, the acting director of national intelligence, says the complaint does not fall within the agencies’ purview because it does not involve a member of the intelligence community — a network of 17 agencies that does not include the White House.
[Read a pairof letters from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence about the complaint.]
The inspector general of the intelligence community “determined that this complaint is both credible and urgent, and that it should be transmitted to Congress under the clear letter of the law,” Mr. Schiff, Democrat of California, said in a statement on Wednesday evening.
Senator Angus King, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats, said the law is “very clear” that the whistle-blower complaint must be handed over to Congress.
“The Inspector General determines what level of concern it is,” said Mr. King, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee. “Once the determination is made,” he added, the director of national intelligence “has a ministerial responsibility to share that with Congress. It is not discretionary.”
“This is based upon the principle of separation of powers and Congress’s oversight responsibility,” Mr. King said.
Mr. Maguire was named the acting director in August, after the president had announced that the previous director of national intelligence, Dan Coats, would be stepping down. Mr. Trump had planned to nominate Representative John Ratcliffe, Republican of Texas, a Trump loyalist without an extensive background in intelligence. But the president dropped the plan after lawmakers from both parties raised concerns about Mr. Ratcliffe’s qualifications and possible exaggerations on his resume.
The reports about the whistle-blower complaint touched off speculation about what Mr. Trump said and to whom.
In the weeks before the complaint was filed, Mr. Trump spoke with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, Prime Minister Imran Khan of Pakistan and the prime minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte.
And current and former intelligence officials have expressed surprise that during his first few months as president, Mr. Trump shared classified information provided by an ally, Israel, with the Russian foreign minister.
Such disclosures are not illegal, but Mr. Trump flouted intelligence-sharing decorum by sharing an ally’s intelligence without express permission.
Mr. King expressed some doubt about how serious the underlying complaint might be.
“I am a little concerned it is being overblown,” Mr. King said. “On the other hand, it may be significant. But we won’t know that for a few days.”
Charlie Savage and Michael S. Schmidt contributed reporting.
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Breaking
It was an attempt to collude with Ukraine to attack Biden ahead of 2020.
Brazen after he got away with it with Russia.
I think this may be it for Trump.
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(09-19-2019, 09:35 PM)jj22 Wrote: Breaking
It was an attempt to collude with Ukraine to attack Biden ahead of 2020.
Brazen after he got away with it with Russia.
I think this may be it for Trump.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/whistleblower-complaint-about-president-trump-involves-ukraine-according-to-two-people-familiar-with-the-matter/2019/09/19/07e33f0a-daf6-11e9-bfb1-849887369476_story.html
Quote:A whistleblower complaint about President Trump made by an intelligence official centers on Ukraine, according to two people familiar with the matter, which has set off a struggle between Congress and the executive branch.
The complaint involved communications with a foreign leader and a “promise” that Trump made, which was so alarming that a U.S. intelligence official who had worked at the White House went to the inspector general of the intelligence community, two former U.S. officials said.
Two and a half weeks before the complaint was filed, Trump spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, a comedian and political newcomer who was elected in a landslide in May.
A White House spokesperson declined to comment.
The Democrats’ investigation was launched earlier this month, before revelations that an intelligence official had lodged a complaint with the inspector general. [url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/trumps-communications-with-foreign-leader-are-part-of-whistleblower-complaint-that-spurred-standoff-between-spy-chief-and-congress-former-officials-say/2019/09/18/df651aa2-da60-11e9-bfb1-849887369476_story.html?tid=lk_inline_manual_8]The Washington Post first reported on Wednesday that the complaint had to do with a “promise” that Trump made when communicating with a foreign leader.
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Whoever the whistleblower claims are about is going to be interesting. But this is only part of the issue. The other issue is that the (acting) Director of National Intelligence is breaking the law in an effort to prevent Congress from its constitutional duty of oversight. The complaints from the Inspector General was found to be credible and urgent, and under the law that must be presented to Congress.
The DNI should be held in contempt and should be charged with the crime which he is committing.
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(09-20-2019, 08:26 AM)Belsnickel Wrote: Whoever the whistleblower claims are about is going to be interesting. But this is only part of the issue. The other issue is that the (acting) Director of National Intelligence is breaking the law in an effort to prevent Congress from its constitutional duty of oversight. The complaints from the Inspector General was found to be credible and urgent, and under the law that must be presented to Congress.
The DNI should be held in contempt and should be charged with the crime which he is committing.
I've been think that DJT is really running the country like he ran his businesses..."do this for me and I'll do this for you". Laws be damned because he can skirt the laws.
And while that might work as a failed developer in NY there are more eyes and more laws covering you when you are POTUS.
But, as usual, the Trump team response is...less openness.
https://www.rawstory.com/2019/09/white-house-limiting-staff-access-to-trumps-phone-calls-to-prevent-future-whistleblowers-cnn/
Quote:On Thursday’s edition of CNN’s “The Situation Room,” CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta reported that President Donald Trump has grown furious about the state of White House leaks, and his officials are working to keep as many people in the administration as possible shut out from his phone calls with foreign leaders — precisely to avoid situations like the exploding DNI whistleblower scandal.
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We are living in a moment that will live in History for ever and for that we should take a minute to appreciate the moment. High crimes and misdemeanors is staring us right in the face and with Rudy's confession Trump must be impeached and arrested for treason.
He should have never got away with it the first time, but he did, and like any criminal went back to the well one too many times.
The question on everyone's mind this morning is what other countries has he reached out to and blackmailed into attacking America and our Democracy to help him win 2020?
Amazing to live through this in real time.
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(09-20-2019, 08:26 AM)Belsnickel Wrote: Whoever the whistleblower claims are about is going to be interesting. But this is only part of the issue. The other issue is that the (acting) Director of National Intelligence is breaking the law in an effort to prevent Congress from its constitutional duty of oversight. The complaints from the Inspector General was found to be credible and urgent, and under the law that must be presented to Congress.
The DNI should be held in contempt and should be charged with the crime which he is committing.
Wouldnt that require the DOJ? HAHAHA yeah.
Looking forward to the excuses posited.
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So did someone tell Trump the identity of the whistleblower and did they investigate their political leanings...or is he talking out his ass again because he can't believe anyone would have a bad word to say ut him since he does everything perfectly? 
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The aid he was withholding to blackmail Ukraine into attacking Americas election process and citizen was released once it was exposed. Coincidence?
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/461109-trump-administration-releases-250m-in-military-aid-to-ukraine
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(09-20-2019, 10:29 AM)GMDino Wrote: So did someone tell Trump the identity of the whistleblower and did they investigate their political leanings...or is he talking out his ass again because he can't believe anyone would have a bad word to say ut him since he does everything perfectly?
Update: He was talking out his ass.
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How can anyone deny that he used the Office of the Presidency for personal gain? And why is that not impeachable according to Pelosi?
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(09-20-2019, 02:24 PM)treee Wrote: How can anyone deny that he used the Office of the Presidency for personal gain? And why is that not impeachable according to Pelosi?
There is no way they can go through impeachment proceedings and it turn out well for Democrats. Because of the hyperpartisan environment, there will never be a bipartisan effort to do the right thing. McConnell will bring it to the floor, but it won't get the votes needed and he will end it as soon as he can. The messaging will be all about this being nothing but a partisan witch hunt, which will work on the GOP base because that is what has been working on them.
Pelosi sees all of this. She knows that impeachment will, at best, leave them right where they are. At worst it will cost them the House in 2020.
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(09-20-2019, 02:30 PM)Belsnickel Wrote: There is no way they can go through impeachment proceedings and it turn out well for Democrats. Because of the hyperpartisan environment, there will never be a bipartisan effort to do the right thing. McConnell will bring it to the floor, but it won't get the votes needed and he will end it as soon as he can. The messaging will be all about this being nothing but a partisan witch hunt, which will work on the GOP base because that is what has been working on them.
Pelosi sees all of this. She knows that impeachment will, at best, leave them right where they are. At worst it will cost them the House in 2020.
This makes me think some kind of oversight reform bill is necessary. If the ruling party can just for all intents and purposes stop it in its tracks, then what's the point?
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The GOP is in too deep.
They can't admit they are backing a criminal grifter.
They can't do anything but keep digging.
The sad fact that 30-40% of american voters still believe them is just mortifying.
I hope I live long enough to see how history treats them and Trump.
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Why is Trump suing the state of New York over releasing his state tax returns? Why? Why?
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(09-19-2019, 10:20 PM)GMDino Wrote: 
Who the hell is that guy to give orders to a foreign government ?
And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
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