WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump notified Congress late Friday that he has fired the intelligence committee watchdog who handled a whistleblower’s complaint involving Trump’s pressure campaign against the Ukranian president that triggered his impeachment.
Trump informed the Senate Intelligence Committee of his decision to fire Michael Atkinson.
“In the midst of a national emergency, it is unconscionable that the president is once again attempting to undermine the integrity of the intelligence community by firing yet another … intelligence official simply for doing his job,” said Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the Intelligence Committee’s vice chairman.
“The work of the intelligence community has never been about loyalty to a single individual; it’s about keeping us all safe from those who wish to do our country harm. We should all be deeply disturbed by ongoing attempts to politicize the nation’s intelligence agencies.”
Atkinson informed Congress about an anonymous whistleblower complaint last year that described Trump’s pressure on Ukraine to investigate Democrat Joe Biden and his son. That complaint prompted a House investigation that ultimately resulted in Trump’s impeachment.
The Senate acquitted Trump in February.
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., House Intelligence Committee chairman who led the impeachment inquiry, called Trump’s action “another blatant attempt by the president to gut the independence of the Intelligence Community and retaliate against those who dare to expose presidential wrongdoing.”
“At a time when our country is dealing with a national emergency and needs people in the Intelligence Community to speak truth to power, the president’s dead of night decision puts our country and national security at even greater risk.”
Trump’s move comes as the nation is grappling with the coronavirus pandemic that has swept the globe and is now exacting a deadly toll in the United States, where nearly 280,000 people have been infected and more than 7,000 have died.
“This retribution against a distinguished public servant for doing his job and informing Congress of an urgent and credible whistleblower complaint is a direct affront to the entire inspector general system,” Schiff said.
Atkinson reviewed the whistleblower’s complaint that alleged Trump “used the power of his office” to solicit foreign help for the 2020 election, determining in late August that the complaint appeared credible.
The then-acting director of national intelligence, Joseph Maguire, prevented him from passing along the complaint to Congress within seven days, as is typically required for national-security whistleblower complaints after consulting with the White House and Justice Department.
Maguire said he thought the complaint might be protected by executive privilege, despite being a conversation with a foreign leader. The Justice Department ruled that the complaint didn’t qualify as an “urgent concern” about “a serious or flagrant problem” requiring notification of Congress because the target – Trump – isn’t a member of the intelligence community.
Atkinson, however, disagreed with that decision, saying in a Sept. 17 letter that the allegations related to “one of the most significant and important” of Maguire’s responsibilities to the American people. Atkinson warned lawmakers that withholding the information could lead to “a significant problem and deficiency” relating to the nation’s intelligence programs.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called Atkinson a “man of integrity.”
“Being fired for having the courage to speak truth to power makes him a patriot,” Schumer said.
Contributing: Bart Jansen, Nicholas Wu and The Associated Press
© 2020 USA Today
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I don’t like what Trump is doing, i totally don’t like it. But the slimy Islam-friendly shitty Democrats are a 100 times worse than GOP. Thus i’m willing to accept this, but with a bad taste remaining…
Ok, you told me to ask you…;)…are you still doing well today?
Yes. Except for some bad ass headaches all is okay. No puking and so far no trouble with the lungs. Even had a dried basil/tobacco cigarette yesterday. But the fight goes on. Funny, we have the room full of tp rolls, but i’m constipated. 😂
You need a lot of water and some exercise bro.
Terrible journalism.
“…Trump’s pressure campaign against the Ukranian president…”
That’s funny, Zelensky said over and over and the transcripts showed over and over…that there was no pressure. And still after Trump was acquitted, they continue the dishonest fake narrative.
Terrible journalism, because it does not fit your narrative. Fox News did not show all the witnesses that had to come to the house, probably. The argument “Zelensky denies it” sounds very familiar to me.
Of course Zelensky is not going to tell, because he can lose military aid if he speaks out. He could only lose by telling it.
It is perfectly clear that the military aid was frozen because there was no attempt to start an “inquiry” into the alleged wrongdoings of Hunter Biden.
Of course you will say: “why can we trust witnesses?”, as Fox News tried to downplay the importance of the witnesses.
But they involve the ambassador, Kurt Volker, Gorden Sondland, Vindman and some others. At the end, the picture was very clear.
And even without them, it makes a lot of sense. What else is Guiliani doing so often in Kyiv? And why did the aid (Trump did still not unblock all military aid by the way, still 30 million is blocked) suddenly was blocked without explanation, and then most of it was approved when he got caught?
No, it’s not good journalism to lie or mislead the readers. I’m sure if you focus you can understand. Oh, and by the way, don’t even try to think for me, that’s what fascists do and you won’t like the results :))
I’m the fascist here. He’s a lefty. 😀
Anyway, wasn’t there a transcript of the phone conversation. That should be first evidence, not witnesses. I donno da truth, but that Schiff & co are pushing a dirty campaign to win the elections is no secret.
It was never released a transcript from the conversation, only a small part of it and even that showed that it was a quid pro quo. The transcript is hidden in a secure server
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2019-09-25/donald-trump-ukraine-volodymyr-zelensky-transcript-impeachment
I can focus, and I think “Zelensky denied it” is a very weak argument. Especially because Zelensky is less reliable than an old Lada.
Why would Zelensky admit it if he would then ruin the relationship with the White House and may lose support or military aid?
If news does not contain what you like to hear, it doesn’t mean journalists are lying or misleading.
This is the kind of journalism that are the truth and the whole truth, don’t trust all the newspapers that have Pulitzer winning journalist in their rank 😉