Attorney General: Trump Was Right to Fire Intelligence Watchdog

The Epoch Times ^ | April 10, 2020 | JANITA KAN

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Attorney General William Barr said the president was right to dismiss the intelligence community inspector general who handled the anonymous whistleblower complaint that prompted a partisan impeachment against the president last year.

The attorney general made the comments in a Fox News interview aired on Thursday, saying that the inspector general, Michael Atkinson, exceeded his authority when he disclosed to Congress the whistleblower complaint that centered around a phone call President Donald Trump had with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

“From the vantage point of the Department of Justice, he had interpreted his statute—which is a fairly narrow statute that gave him jurisdiction over wrongdoing by intelligence people—and tried to turn it into a commission to explore anything in the government and immediately reported to Congress without letting the Executive Branch look at it and determine whether there was any problem,” Barr said during the interview.

On April 3, Trump sent a letter to the Senate intelligence committee and other congressional intelligence officials that he was removing Atkinson from office in 30 days, after having lost confidence in him. The president then appointed National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency general counsel Thomas Monheim to act as his replacement.

Atkinson played a central role in the series of events leading up to the impeachment effort against Trump last year. He vetted the anonymous whistleblower complaint and determined that it should be forwarded to Congress as a matter of urgency. The complaint contained allegations about Trump’s conduct during a phone call with Zelensky last July.

The whistleblower, whose name has not been released, admitted in the complaint that he or she was “not a direct witness to most of the events described” but had received the information from “colleagues’ accounts,” which he or she found credible.

[hondact200]

Eric Ciamerelli needs to be arrested and fired and lose his pension.

[colorado tanker]

Of course Trump and Barr are right. This guy far exceeded his authority and was part of a conspiracy to kick start the impeachment fiasco. Why are there so few sane, logical people in the public arena these days?

[adorno]

Why are there so few sane, logical people in the public arena these days?

Sanity and logic are not part of the political process, especially when the politics involves getting rid of your political enemies.

[Dogbert41]

Was Atkinson the one that magically changed the Whistle Blower criteria from direct witness to a hearsay witness for Eric Ciamerelli? If not who did, and where did that authority come from???

[upchuck]

From the article:

“My own view is that the evidence shows that we’re not dealing with just the mistakes or sloppiness,” Barr said. “There was something far more troubling here. We’re going to get to the bottom of it. And if people broke the law and we can establish that with the evidence, they will be prosecuted.”

I realize these things take time. But gee whiz AG Barr, this is taking forever. I hope the extra time will result in even more indictments.

[july4thfreedomfoundation]

Tell it to that idiot Susan Collins.

[MCSETots]

“Somebody has to go jail, Ben. Somebody always has to go to jail.”

[trebb]

Takes time to make a neat package - with the entities he's dealing with the tiniest mistake can blow the whole effort up or drag it out so long folks will be in their graves from natural causes before it gets resolved---via history books.

He's using the older bull's tactics instead of the younger bull...