U.S. president finding himself cornered by whistleblower report
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- Published: Tuesday, 01 October 2019 13:56
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PHoto: CadenagramonteWashington, October 1 - U.S. President Donald Trump faces the biggest political crisis of his career, after the publication of bombshell complaint accusing the president of abusing his power for personal gain. In the nine-page document, an unnamed government whistleblower — who has been identified as a CIA official — writes, “[T]he President of the United States is using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election.”
On Capitol Hill, members of the House Intelligence Committee grilled acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire over why he failed to quickly turn over the whistleblower’s complaint to Congress after the inspector general of the intelligence community found it to be “credible” and “urgent.” Maguire cited White House claims of executive privilege for the delay, calling the case “unique and unprecedented.”
Joseph Maguire told lawmakers that he believed that the whistleblower and the inspector general acted in good faith throughout the process and that he has every reason to believe that they did everything by the book.
Trump lashed out over the growing scandal, calling reporters “scum” and “animals” and comparing the whistleblower to a treasonous spy who deserved the death penalty. Trump made the remarks to a closed-door gathering of diplomats on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Audio of his remarks was leaked to The Los Angeles Times.
In the recording, Trump says: “Who’s the person who gave the whistleblower the information? Because that’s close to a spy. You know what we used to do in the old days, when we were smart, right? The spies and treason, we used to handle it a little differently than we do now.”
On Sunday, House Intelligence Chair Adam Schiff revealed the anonymous whistleblower would soon testify before the committee. Schiff said: “We are taking all the precautions we can to make sure that we do so, we allow that testimony to go forward, in a way that protects the whistleblower’s identity, because, as you can imagine, with the president issuing threats like 'We ought to treat these people who expose my wrongdoing as we used to treat traitors and spies,' and we used to execute traitors and spies, you can imagine the security concerns here.”
Over the weekend, lawyers for the whistleblower wrote a letter to the chairs of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees expressing fears for their client’s safety after Trump compared the whistleblower to a treasonous spy and demanded to “meet my accuser.” The lawyers wrote: “The events of the past week have heightened our concerns that our client’s identity will be disclosed publicly and that, as a result, our client will be put in harm’s way.” (Cadenagramonte)
