Whistleblower complaint to be turned over to House and Senate Intel

[brooklynite]

Source: Axios

The whistleblower complaint at the heart of a controversy involving President Trump and Ukraine will be released to the House and Senate Intelligence Committees at 4 p.m. ET on Wednesday, lawmakers confirmed.

Why it matters: The Trump administration's initial refusal to turn over the complaint led to Speaker Nancy Pelosi's watershed decision on Tuesday to finally support a formal impeachment inquiry. The Washington Post and NBC News reported on Wednesday that acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire threatened to resign if the administration prevented him from testifying freely before Congress on Thursday. The White House has denied these reports.

The big picture: Earlier on Wednesday, the White House released the transcript of a July call in which Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden and his son. The release did little to satisfy Democrats, with Speaker Pelosi doubling down on her call for for a formal impeachment inquiry.

Read more: https://www.axios.com/whistleblower-complaint-house-senate-intelligence-ukraine-05f9bc16-6756-4d7d-aa71-6cf1c9577f52.html?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=organic&utm_content=1100

[pangaia]

1. It is NOT A TRANSCRIPT...

[brooklynite]

2. Actually it is...

It may not be an ACCURATE transcript, but its a compilation of words said, rather than a narrative summary (a la the Barr summary of the Mueller report)

[deurbano]

7. They should call it what the document is labeled-- a memorandum-- and they should note the ellipses!

"CAUTION: A Memorandum of a Telephone Conversation (TELCON) is not a verbatim transcript of a discussion. The text in this document records the notes and recollections of Situation Room Duty Officers and NSC policy staff assigned to listen and memorialize the conversation in written form as the conversation takes place."

"Recollections"?!

[beachbumbob]

3. Need to haul Maguire in and asked him how he was prevented

in doing his lawful job. Who pressured him? And why he think it was done.

[ananda]

4. We know who pressured him. Bill Barr.

..

[alwaysinasnit]

5. Yup. We need to get it into the record.

[beachbumbob]

8. Apparently this guy is not denying any pressure, more important

then ever to get him under oath, subpoena day calendar, call records, and close associates. You get the top guy by going after the underlings. This is the only way sand I sure we see some guts in pursuit here.

[alwaysinasnit]

6. And then, hopefully, get the whistleblower to testify, just to make sure that the documents handed

over to the Committees have not been tampered with.

[Chakaconcarne]

9. Swalwell just eluded the complaint has provided new leads and names.

But was not allowed to elaborate if there was more information than the call.

[wiggs]

10. Does anyone think this happened only on one call? Does anyone think this didn't happen

with other countries, for other purposes? Does anyone think this is the only misconduct? Does anyone think Trump acts in the best interests of the US?

Most of the gop who have spoken today say they do...not only that, they say they don't see anything wrong with what Trump did with Ukraine. we should be countering that strongly, not just letting it lie there and politely offering our counterpoint.

None of this should be allowed to be reduced down to a single whistleblower and his/her politics, to a single call or summary of a call, or to just being tough politics. This fits a pattern of immoral, self-serving, untrustworthy, unfit criminal behavior that goes back way before the election. This is precisely who Trump is...and Trump being Trump for 70 years is the context that informs each action now. Ukraine is just one manifestation of his dysfunction. Let's talk about the dysfunction.

Let's talk about 2016 election again...and how he's failed to protect the nation against interference in 2020. Let's talk about money laundering, back-channels to Putin, Manafort changing the gop platform to benefit russia, dangling pardons, obstruction of Mueller and congress, lying each and every day, coddling authoritarian nations because they could benefit him politically and financially, murdered post journalists, emoluments, Charlottesville, muslim ban, caging children, cruelty, arrogance, and the rest. The NY Times has a partial list that's a good starting point. It's all the same Trump, all a continuum, all what the gop signed up for.

each of these don't have to be their own articles of impeachment, and probably shouldn't be, but they must rise to the surface of the public conversation about Trump's unfitness during impeachment. So that it all can be finally flushed down where it belongs either by the senate or by 2020 voters.

this requires heavy lifting and governing by the democrats first, as usual.

[Lulu KC]

11. Joseph Maguire good for you!