Trump Administration Attempts To Block Whistleblower Complaint

[AGBF]

Donald Trump is, once again, flouting the rule of law. He is thumbing his nose at the the law that insures that a whistleblower who has received the approval of the intelligence community inspector general as "credicle and urgent" in accordance with the law have his complaint be sent to Congress within seven days. "The Washington Post" reports that the complaint involves a promise the president made over the phone to a foreign leader that a member of the defense community found very troubling. It is unprecedented for the Executive branch to hold up this process and not let the complaint reach Congress.

"Washington (CNN) President Donald Trump's communications with a foreign leader, which included a 'promise,' sparked the whistleblower complaint that has led the acting director of national intelligence to agree to testify amid a showdown with Congress, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

The Post reported that an official in the American intelligence community was so bothered by a 'promise' Trump made to a foreign leader that the official filed a formal whistleblower complaint with the inspector general of the intelligence community, according to two former US officials familiar with the matter. It's unknown which leader Trump was speaking to and it's the first time his direct involvement in the complaint has been reported, according to the Post.

The complaint was filed on August 12 and White House records show Trump had spoken to or interacted with five foreign leaders in the previous five weeks, the Post reports: Russian President Vladimir Putin, North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, the Prime Minister of Pakistan, the Prime Minister of the Netherlands and the Emir of Qatar. However, it's not clear that the communication that inspired the complaint was with any of those leaders.

The White House did not respond to the Post's requests for comment and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and a lawyer representing the whistleblower declined to comment to the Post. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence also declined to comment when reached by CNN on Wednesday.

The complaint has led to a standoff between Congress and acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire, who has refused to turn over the complaint to the House Intelligence Committee.

Maguire has agreed to testify next week in an open session before the committee after refusing to comply with Tuesday's deadline to hand over the whistleblower complaint, which had been deemed by the intelligence community inspector general to be 'credible and urgent.'"

 

[Matata]

Trump is an odious twonk.

 

[JPie]

Many people are saying he’s a short-fingered vulgarian.

 

[Matata]

...an odious short-fingered vulgarian twonk

 

[AGBF]

I continue to follow this latest test of whether we will have three separate branches of government after the Trump presidency.

 

[Tekate]

Well it seems the don had asked Ukraine to open an investigation into Biden and his son, the great ahole Rudy is behind it also.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...se-involving-ukraine-is-particularly-ominous/

 

[Octo2005]

WSJ (CNN) is now reporting that trump personally asked the Ukraine president 8 times to work with Guilliani to investigate Biden's son
https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/20/poli...calls-biden-investigation-giuliani/index.html

When will this madness end?

 

[AGBF]

Trump sent a personal aide to help him win the 2020 election by using the power of the United States government! He dressed Giuliani up to look like some kind of civil servant-which he is NOT. He was withholding aid to Ukraine which needed to fight off Russia until the new president helped him get dirt on his PERSONAL enemy, Joe Biden. I am glad Senator Chris Murphy traveled to Ukraine and spoke to the new president. He reported that the president of Ukraine had gotten strong signals that aid would not start again unless he gave Trump dirt on Biden and his family.

 

[AGBF]

This "whistleblower" thread has become a bit more than a "whistleblower" thread. Trump has now admitted that after having cancelled military aid Congress had appropriated to Ukraine to stave off Russia's invasion (not that he alluded to his having done that), that he got on the phone with the new president of Ukraine and told him (eight times) to investigate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter for corruption. This is more than corruption, more than abuse of power, this is more than getting a foreign power to meddle in an election, it is certainly many other crimes. I will let someone else come up with the crimes he should be charged. He has to be removed from office if no one will charge him with crimes while in office. He betrayed the country for his own self-interest and no one has stopped him.

"The allegations center on whether Mr. Trump pressured Ukraine’s newly elected leader, implicitly or explicitly, to take action to hurt Mr. Biden’s election bid at a vulnerable moment for the former Soviet republic, possibly using United States military aid as leverage. Ukraine has been fighting Russian-backed separatists, and the Trump administration had temporarily been withholding a $250 million package of military funding. There have been no indications to this point, however, that Mr. Trump mentioned the aid money on the call.

Mr. Trump showed no sign of contrition on Sunday, telling aides that Democrats were overplaying their hand on a matter voters would dismiss. Publicly, he worked to focus attention not on his own actions but on Mr. Biden’s."

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/22/us/politics/trump-impeachment-whistle-blower.html