Intelligence community inspector general Michael Atkinson appeared in a closed-door session before the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday morning. However, The New York Times is reporting that Atkinson has so far refused to provide any details about the substance of the complaint that was reported overnight by The Washington Post and confirmed on Thursday morning by The Wall Street Journal. That includes refusing to confirm whether the complaint directly targets Donald Trump. Atkinson was still before the committee as of 12 PM ET, an unusually long hearing.
The language that Atkinson used in describing the report in an earlier letter, calling it “an urgent matter,” has a specific meaning in regard to such reports. It would seem to indicate that this is not a policy dispute, but an accusation that Trump has committed a violation of law. The Times report seems to join the Post and Journal in confirming that the basis of the report is an action that Trump took in a phone call to a foreign leader. However, at this point no details have been released, and reports indicate that Atkinson has refused to confirm anything about the report other than his earlier opinion that it is “credible.”
Meanwhile, Trump has responded to the unfolding events in a series of tweets. Trump described the issue as just “another fake news story out there.” He then dismissed the idea that he might have said anything wrong to a foreign leader, claiming that “virtually anytime I speak on the phone to a foreign leader, I understand that there may be many people listening from various U.S. agencies.” The key word here is “virtually,” as previous reports have shown that Trump has made unscheduled calls to foreign officials, including Vladimir Putin. Trump has also pretended to make calls that never happened, such as calls to the Chinese trade delegation.
Trump isn’t the only person tweeting about this report. A former CIA officer told NBC News that filing a report of this sort is like riding a horse over a cliff with banners flying, “You can only do it once, you are finished however it turns out. So it had better be worth it. I suspect it is.”
Former Obama Cabinet secretary Chris Lu spoke up to remind everyone about the serious nature of such a report, and the specific hurdles that had to be cleared before Atkinson would speak of the report in the way that he has. Not only is this not a simple policy dispute, or even spilling of information over the phone. It has to be something blatant … but what it is remains unknown.
Former ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul also had a comment on the seriousness of this situation. “I cannot remember a whistleblower trying to blow a whistle on a president, “ wrote McFaul. “Like it or not, the president can declassify whatever he wants when he wants. Something bigger seems to be going on.”
Considering all the disappointments of the last three years, it’s easy to be skeptical that any new information is going to move the needle. It’s also difficult to think of anything at this point that the Republicans wouldn’t wave away—after all, they are all in on Trump. But whatever’s going on, serious people are taking it seriously.