Defiance
The nation’s top intelligence official is illegally withholding a whistleblower complaint, possibly to protect President Donald Trump or senior White House officials, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff alleged Friday.
Schiff issued a subpoena for the complaint, accusing acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire of taking extraordinary steps to withhold the complaint from Congress, even after the intel community’s inspector general characterized the complaint as credible and of “urgent concern.”
They’re not allowed to do that.
Schiff indicated that he learned the matter involved “potentially privileged communications by persons outside the Intelligence Community,” raising the specter that it is “being withheld to protect the President or other Administration officials.” In addition, Schiff slammed Maguire for consulting the Justice Department about the whistleblower complaint “even though the statute does not provide you discretion to review, appeal, reverse, or countermand in any way the [inspector general’s] independent determination, let alone to involve another entity within the Executive Branch.”
Especially when it’s Bill Barr’s wholly submissive Justice Department.
Officials in Maguire’s office acknowledged Schiff’s subpoena late Friday.
“We received the HPSCI’s subpoena this evening. We are reviewing the request and will respond appropriately,” said a senior intelligence official. “The ODNI and Acting DNI Maguire are committed to fully complying with the law and upholding whistleblower protections and have done so here.”
No they’re not and no they haven’t.
I’m not sure if you saw this, but here is an article from my former employer that I think you’d be interested in.
Specifically this bit:
Now South Africa’s government is a stuff-up. Earlier in that article you can read about how our police minister couldn’t meet with the hostel dwellers to try and quell the crisis – because he had previously engaged to attend the reed dance. So our priorities go – well he should be calming violence that has already claimed lives and is threatening our trade relationship with the rest of the continent, but boobies.
Anyway, back on topic, as much as my government is a screw-up I think it is important to point to the impact of America on the rest of us that I don’t think Americans necessarily think about. Trump is used as a precedent for our violence.
There is a danger with guys like Trump of political contagion across the world, so when you’ve got stuff like Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire working to illegally shield Trump? Well we already see the impact Trump has had on things like xenophobia on a global scale, there is no reason to think he wouldn’t have a similar impact on political transparency across the world.
In short, Bruce Gorton, Trump gives assholes permission to be open assholes, and he gives empowerment to those that elevate those assholes to prominent offices.
Yep.