It appears that Donald Trump made a promise to a foreign leader (Putin?) that so bothered someone in the intelligence community that the person reported their knowledge of the interaction to the Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson….
The Director of National Intelligence KNOWS about this and one would presume so does his boss, the person impacted , President Donald Trump…
This information IS supposed to go the top Intelligence committee members in Congress…
But at first the Acting DNI boss refused to answer questions from House Democrats…
He will speak to them tomorrow…
This seems to be another dead end in the contining saga of a President who has broken all sorts of norms and rules but has benefited from the Republicans in Congress simply NOT willing to go after a President of their party for just about ANYTHING….
The whole case is complicated by the prospect of information revealing America ‘sources and methods’of spying….
There have been worries that Trump could have made promises to Russian President Putin of the nature that would put anyone else but a President…. in jail….
Trump has been a nightmare for the American Intelligence community from the jump …
It was not immediately clear which foreign leader Trump was speaking with or what he pledged to deliver, but his direct involvement in the matter has not been previously disclosed. It raises new questions about the president’s handling of sensitive information and may further strain his relationship with U.S. spy agencies. One former official said the communication was a phone call.
The White House declined to comment. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence and a lawyer representing the whistleblower declined to comment.
Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson determined that the complaint was credible and troubling enough to be considered a matter of “urgent concern,” a legal threshold that ordinarily requires notification of congressional oversight committees.
But acting director of national intelligence Joseph Maguire has refused to share details about Trump’s alleged transgression with lawmakers, touching off a legal and political dispute that has spilled into public and prompted speculation that the spy chief is improperly protecting the president….
Note….
There is NO mention of the word ‘treason’ in any of this…
Update…
The whistleblower complaint reportedly involving a discussion between President Trump and a foreign leader was based on more than one incident, said a Democratic lawmaker who attended the House Intelligence Committee’s closed-door meeting Thursday with the intelligence community’s inspector general….
image….WashingtonPost..