If there is a precipitating event of the now-open impeachment inquiry, it wasn’t Donald Trump’s phone call to Ukraine. And it wasn’t the whistleblower who reported concerns about that call and related matters to the inspector general of the intelligence community. What actually triggered this inquiry were the actions of acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire who, rather than signing off on the report being handed to Congress as a matter of routine, began an uproar by instead handing it over for a review by the Justice Department and White House attorneys.
Maguire’s actions, which have no sanction in the Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection Act, generated a protest from Inspector General Michael Atkinson. A series of letters back and forth between Atkinson and House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff quickly outlined the situation: Atkinson had determined that the complaint was both credible and urgent. That last term was particularly important, as under the provisions of the act it meant that this wasn’t a complaint about personal treatment or a disagreement over a matter of policy, but something that spoke directly to national security.
Meanwhile, the Trump White House exhibited its most reflexive action—hiding every scrap of information from Congress. Not only did the White House declare that the whistleblower was dealing with matters that weren’t a proper concern of the intelligence community, a ruling that the law doesn’t even discuss, but the DOJ placed the report under the same kind of privilege-not-privilege that the Trump White House has exerted hundreds of times. White House attorneys went on to order Atkinson to refuse to answer any question about the content of the report.
That series of events, triggered by Maguire’s refusal to simply follow the prescribed actions in the Whistleblower Protection Act, is as much responsible for initiating the impeachment as anything Donald Trump said on his phone call to the Ukrainian president, because it once again showed that the Trump White House is ever ready to engage in obstruction, lies, and an utter disdain for Congress.
And today, Maguire gets to explain himself—if he will talk at all.
Earlier reporting had indicated that Maguire was so concerned about his ability to tell his side of the story to Congress that he threatened to resign if he was placed under the same kind of restrictions that were laid on Atkinson. However, Maguire has denied that he ever threatened to resign. Whether that means he also is happy to sit in front of the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday morning and give a standard “I’ve been instructed not to” response to every question is an open question.
Maguire will appear at 9:00 AM Eastern time. The hearing will be streamed live on C-SPAN.