Trump fires IG watchdog who handled Ukraine complaint

Post via (TLB) Staff

(ZeroHedge)

President Trump on Friday fired the intelligence community inspector general, Michael Atkinson (pictured), who brought a hearsay whistleblower complaint to Congressional Democrats, kicking off President Trump’s impeachment.

Atkinson’s closed-door testimony was so troubling to House Republicans that they launched an investigation into his role into what President Trump and his allies coined the ‘impeachment hoax.’

Ranking member of the House Intelligence Intelligence Committee Devin Nunes (R-CA) told SarahCarter.com that transcripts of Atkinson’s secret testimony would expose that he either lied or needs to make corrections to his statements to lawmakers.

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(The Right Scoop)

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Trump informed the Senate intelligence committee Friday of his decision to fire Atkinson, according to a letter obtained by The Associated Press. Trump said in the letter that it is “vital” that he has confidence in the appointees serving as inspectors general, and “that is no longer the case with regard to this inspector general.” Atkinson was the first to inform 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.

As you can imagine, Democrats are losing it:

Trump’s dead of night decision to fire ICIG Michael Atkinson is another blatant attempt to gut the independence of the Intelligence Community and retaliate against those who dare to expose presidential wrongdoing. It puts our country and national security at even greater risk. pic.twitter.com/Pnm7chdIkl — Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) April 4, 2020

Michael Atkinson is a man of integrity who has served our nation for almost two decades. Being fired for having the courage to speak truth to power makes him a patriot. https://t.co/Gl3JtewXL0 — Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) April 4, 2020

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(Politico)

The whistleblower complaint effectively kicked off the House’s impeachment inquiry, which began in late September amid allegations that Trump had solicited foreign interference in the 2020 election when he asked Ukraine’s president to investigate his political opponents, including Joe Biden.

Atkinson opposed the decision by then-acting director of national intelligence Joseph Maguire to withhold the whistleblower complaint from the House and Senate intelligence committees — in particular, Maguire’s decision to seek guidance on the issue from the Justice Department, rather than turn it over to Congress as required by law.

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(TLB) staff compiled this post from ZeroHedge, The Right Scoop and Politico.

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