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Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said on Thursday that he is placing a hold on two of President Trump's nominees, saying the administration provided an "inadequate response" to his questions about the firing of two inspectors general. Grassley is placing a hold on Christopher Miller's nomination to be the director of the National Counterterrorism Center over the firing of intelligence community Inspector General Michael Atkinson. He is also placing a hold on Marshall Billingslea's nomination to be the undersecretary for arms control and international security at the State Department for the ousting of State Department Inspector General Steven Linick. Grassley said...

A top State Department official has accused Steve Linick, the department’s fired inspector general, of contacting a former colleague, obtaining official documents and returning to his former office -- all in violation of the terms of his administrative leave, Fox News has learned. In a letter to Linick's attorney, obtained by Fox News, the State Department Under Secretary for Management Brian Bulatao says “in the days before his Congressional testimony, he sent a text message to the Deputy Inspector General, Diana Shaw, requesting a copy of the DOD IG report on the origins of a leak of a draft State...

The State Department inspector general whose recent dismissal ignited a political firestorm sent copies detailing a sensitive investigation to his personal email account, according to a probe into his conduct run by the Defense Department's inspector general. The inquiry report, dated March 17, confirms that fired State Department inspector general Steve Linick was the subject of a broad investigation related to the leaks of politically charged materials to journalists, specifically a draft evaluation report into Brian Hook, the State Department’s top Iran official. The report, which was provided to the House Foreign Affairs Committee, concluded that while Linick was permitted...

I started reading through and or skimming the tranche of released transcripts of testimony that has been hidden from view for far too long yesterday and found myself on the second Bannon interview. These are in alphabetical order with dates also listed oddly, so you need to pay attention when a witness testimony spans two days, such as Bannon’s, as it can be confusing when reading. Bannon’s has the two days with the second day listed first. I had read beyond Bannon when I realized there was a transcript missing. The transcript for Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson is...

Sen. Mitt Romney is among a bipartisan group of lawmakers demanding that President Donald Trump explain why he fired the intelligence community inspector general. The eight senators, led by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, say the explanation Trump gave for removing Michael Atkinson was insufficient and does not comply with the law. The president cited a lack of confidence in the intelligence community’s top watchdog. “Congressional intent is clear that an expression of lost confidence, without further explanation, is not sufficient to fulfill the requirements of the statute,” the senators wrote in a letter Thursday. “This is in large part because...

Firing the US intelligence community’s inspector general is a big deal. I should know. I was a former longtime Central Intelligence Agency official who blew the whistle on the Clinton White House and agency bosses. Even so, I believe President Trump’s firing last week of IC Inspector General Michael Atkinson was appropriate — indeed, overdue. Liberals and their media allies are predictably framing the firing as ­retaliation for Atkinson’s decision to inform Congress about a complaint by a so-called whistleblower that set off the Democratic effort to impeach the president. That’s false. Let’s review the facts. On Sept. 9, 2019,...

This guy should be locked up. Intelligence Community Inspector General (ICIG) Michael Atkinson left behind a trail of lies and corruption from his days at the DOJ and as ICIG. Even his wife is connected to the Deep State. On Friday President Trump announced that he was firing ICIG Atkinson because he could no longer be trusted. The President had lost all confidence in Atkinson. Here is the President’s letter to the US Senate announcing the move: https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/wp-content/uploads/trump-fires-atkinson-v2.jpg Atkinson was identified in the most recent FISA abuse report by the DOJ IG Horowitz as one of the individuals who was...

Here are the details you need to know to fully understand why President Trump lost confidence in Inspector General Michael Atkinson and exercised his presidential prerogative to replace him. On Saturday, reporters queried President Trump about his Friday firing of Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson. TrumpÂ’s response seemingly confirmed the left-leaning press and DemocratsÂ’s narrative that the firing was retaliation for the IG informing the House Intelligence Committee of a whistleblowerÂ’s complaint. That complaint concerned TrumpÂ’s conversation with the Ukrainian president that set in motion TrumpÂ’s impeachment.But what the media and TrumpÂ’s political opponents wonÂ’t tell you is that...

Michael Atkinson broke his silence Sunday saying he's "disappointed and saddened" at President Trump's late-night decision just a day earlier to fire him from his watchdog post in the intelligence community. "It is hard not to think that the president's loss of confidence in me derives from my having faithfully discharged my legal obligations as an independent and impartial inspector general, and from my commitment to continue to do so," Atkinson wrote in a two-page statement. The watchdog had alerted Congress to concerns about a Trump phone call with the president of Ukraine – a matter that led to the...

Michael Atkinson, the outgoing intelligence community inspector general fired by President Trump on Friday, says he believes the president dismissed him because of his commitment to his duty as an impartial watchdog. "It is hard not to think that the President's loss of confidence in me derives from my having faithfully discharged my legal obligations as an independent and impartial Inspector General, and from my commitment to continue to do so," Atkinson said in a statement released Sunday night that was obtained by several news outlets and shared on social media. Trump fired Atkinson in a memo on Friday, explaining...

On Saturday’s “CNN Newsroom,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said that Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson and USS Theodore Roosevelt Commanding Officer Captain Brett Crozier are examples of people the Trump administration fired for speaking the truth. Schumer said, “There’s all too familiar a pattern in this administration, when you tell the president the truth, you get fired. This guy was a patriot. This guy stood for — our intelligence agencies have done such a wonderful job. … And by politicizing it, dismantling it, not wanting to hear the truth, that’s — since World War II, we have...

A day after he was abruptly fired by President Trump, outgoing Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson spoke on the phone with Senate Minority Chuck Schumer. The New York Democrat said Saturday evening that he told the independent watchdog, whom defenders fear was removed to settle a score stemming from the impeachment saga, he will be remembered as a "hero." "I spoke to Inspector General Michael Atkinson tonight, thanked him for his service, and told him that history will remember him as a hero and those who retaliated against him as scoundrels," Schumer tweeted.

President Donald Trump fired off a laundry list of grievances at his daily White House press conference with the coronavirus task force Saturday, bashing Rep. Adam Schiff, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, former Vice President Joe Biden, and the Ukraine whistleblower. The wild diatribe was kicked off by a reporter asking Trump about his firing of Michael Atkinson, the intelligence community inspector general who told Congress about the whistleblower complaint regarding Trump’s phone call with Ukraine, ultimately leading to his impeachment. “I thought he did a terrible job,” Trump said. “Absolutely terrible.” Trump proceeded to falsely claim the Ukraine whistleblower...

EXCLUSIVE: Republican Rep. Devin Nunes on Friday threatened to escalate his concerns about Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson’s handling of the Ukraine whistleblower complaint to the Justice Department unless Atkinson complies with congressional requests for information and documents. In a letter obtained by Fox News Friday, Nunes, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, issued the stark warning to Atkinson, giving him a Feb. 14 deadline to comply with past congressional requests.

President Trump on Friday night fired Michael Atkinson, the inspector general for the intelligence community who had deemed “urgent” a whistleblower’s complaint about the president’s actions on aid to Ukraine. In a letter to the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, the president said “it is vital that I have the fullest confidence in the appointees serving as inspectors general.” “That is no longer the case with regard to this inspector general,” Mr. Trump said. The president said the firing would take effect in 30 days and he will nominate a new candidate, who must be confirmed...

Democrats on Friday reacted furiously to President Trump’s decision to fire the intelligence community inspector general who informed Congress about the Ukraine whistleblower complaint.

President Trump has sent a letter to congress giving them 30-days advance notice and informing them of the removal of Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson: [image of letter] The necessary, albeit politically controversial, move comes about two months after President Trump assigned Ric Grenell to lead the Office of the Director of National Intelligence; Grenell is ultimately the acting boss of the overall intelligence community. It is likely DNI Grenell provided some key insight into the sketchy background activity in/around Atkinson’s office, and the overall intelligence apparatus writ large. Additionally, former congressman Mark Meadows is now President Trump’s Chief-of-Staff;...

Details have been reported on last night's meeting in Emmett, Idaho called by Ammon Bundy in response to government restrictions related to Covid-19. Bundy says that state officials are "exploiting" the situation and violating the Bill of Rights of the US Constitution... The unemployment rate in the US moving up to 4.4 percent last month from the record low of 3.5 percent..... Russia now says that it is in communication with other countries in response to Saudi Arabia's call for an OPEC+ meeting involving oil producing nations.... A firing in Washington tonight related to last year's impeachment process against President...

President Donald Trump has fired the intelligence community’s chief watchdog, Michael Atkinson, who was the first to sound the alarm to Congress last September about an “urgent” complaint he’d received from an intelligence official involving Trump’s communications with Ukraine’s president. Trump formally notified the Senate and House intelligence committees of his intention to fire Atkinson and remove him from his duties, to take effect 30 days from Friday, according to two congressional officials and a copy of the letter obtained by POLITICO dated April 3. “This is to advise that I am exercising my power as President to remove from...

While presenting the Democrats' case for impeachment on the Senate floor, lead impeachment manager Adam Schiff (D-CA) kept referencing 17 witnesses who testified during the House impeachment inquiry. But there were 18 of them. Schiff and the Democrats are refusing to release the testimony of Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson, and according to Republicans who were present during Atkinson's closed-door testimony, the reason the transcript hasn't been released is because it proves both the whistleblower and House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff did not tell the truth about their contact with each other. Fox News' Maria Bartiromo interviewed Rep. John...