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DOJ played a key role in this Obstruction — despite the clear Law directing otherwise.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Justice played a key role in a Trump administration decision to withhold a whistleblower complaint from Congress, U.S. House Intelligence panel chairman Adam Schiff said on Thursday, adding that lawmakers did not know yet if the White House was involved.
Schiff, speaking to reporters after a closed-door meeting with the intelligence community’s inspector general, said that the Justice Department had misinterpreted the law in blocking the complaint.
www.reuters.com — Sept 19, 2019
Schiff says DOJ involved in decision to block whistleblower complaint
The Whistleblower Law is clear in its intent that the “urgent concern” — MUST BE forwarded to Congress. The Law has NO Exemptions:
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The whistleblower filed an “urgent concern” with the intelligence community inspector general a month ago, which the watchdog found to be credible, as described by committee chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) in a press release. Under the Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection Act, once the inspector general has sent a whistleblower complaint to the director of national intelligence, the director must forward the complaint within seven days to Congress’s intelligence committees.
In what Schiff says is an “unprecedented departure from past practice,” Maguire has not complied with the law, arguing that the underlying information involves “potentially privileged communications by persons outside the Intelligence Community.”
The language of the law does not provide any exemptions for the director of national intelligence not to communicate these disclosures to Congress once the inspector general has determined it should, which Schiff points out. So, even if what the acting director claims is true, it would not exempt him from complying with federal law.
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www.pogo.org — Sept 18, 2019
Confrontation over Intelligence Whistleblower Complaint Shows Laws Falling Short
The acting DNI Director got pushed onto the Trump Law-breaking Obstruction wagon — after consulting with the Justice Department ...
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The dispute erupted after Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson told the committee in a Sept. 9 letter that he had received an Aug. 9 whistleblower complaint that he deemed urgent and credible, the legal threshold requiring its transmission to Congress.
But a Sept. 13 letter to the House panel and the Senate Intelligence Committee asserted that acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire — after consulting with the Justice Department — found that the complaint did not meet the legal definition of "urgent concern."
In the letter, Jason Klitenic, general counsel in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, also said the complaint was not subject to disclosure because it did not concern conduct by an intelligence official or an intelligence activity overseen by the DNI, as required by the law.
"Furthermore, because the complaint involves confidential and potentially privileged communications by persons outside the Intelligence Community, the DNI lacks unilateral authority to transmit such materials to the intelligence committees," he wrote.
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news.yahoo.com — 1 hour ago
Lawmaker accuses U.S. Justice Department of blocking whistleblower disclosure
If Trump bribing the Ukrainian President to help him rig the next election is not an “urgent matter” — I don’t know what the hell is!
Are we going to just acquiesce to Trump and his foreign conspirators, and become an effectively 1-party Nation — put a fork in us, were done … as a free and people-driven democratic country.
This alleged matter is as “urgent” as our free-nation can and should allow. And we MUST get to the bottom of it.
Trump is not yet a King. We must not let him become one, by his continuing and outrageous abuses of power.
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PS. I hope the “DOJ connection” (interference) here, is enough of a clear obstruction, to finally put Bill Barr in serious legal jeopardy as well.
This Trump-enabler deserves it, for all his public lying to protect the King of the Liars — as the Untouchable one.
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