President Donald Trump has fired the intelligence community’s chief watchdog, Michael Atkinson, who was the first to sound the alarm to Congress last September about an “urgent” complaint he’d received from an intelligence official involving Trump’s communications with Ukraine’s president.
Atkinson's decision set in motion the congressional probe that culminated in Trump's impeachment, and ultimate acquittal in January, largely along party lines.
Trump formally notified the Senate and House Intelligence Committees of his intention to fire Atkinson, to take effect 30 days from Friday, according to two congressional officials and a copy of the letter obtained by POLITICO dated April 3.
“This is to advise that I am exercising my power as president to remove from office the inspector general of the intelligence community, effective 30 days from today,” the president wrote.
Trump said in the letter that he “no longer” has the fullest confidence in Atkinson. “As is the case with regard to other positions where I, as president, have the power of appointment, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, it is vital that I have the fullest confidence in the appointees serving as inspectors general,” he wrote. “That is no longer the case with regard to this inspector general.”
Trump added that he would be submitting a new nominee for the position to the Senate “at a later date.”
Democrats immediately blasted the move as an abuse of power at a dangerous time for the United States.
Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, called Atkinson’s firing “unconscionable,” and accused the president of an ongoing effort to politicize intelligence.
“In the midst of a national emergency, it is unconscionable that the president is once again attempting to undermine the integrity of the intelligence community by firing yet another intelligence official simply for doing his job,” Warner said in a statement.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) described the firing as “retribution” coming in the “dead of night” and called it “yet another blatant attempt by the president to gut the independence of the intelligence community and retaliate against those who dare to expose presidential wrongdoing.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Atkinson’s ouster was evidence that Trump “fires people for telling the truth.”
Mark Zaid, a national security lawyer who represented the Ukraine whistleblower, called the firing “delayed retaliatory action” for Atkinson’s “proper handling of a whistleblower complaint.”
“This action is disgraceful and undermines the integrity of the whistleblower system,” Zaid said. “It is time GOP members of the Senate stand up for the rule of law and speak out against this president.”
The whistleblower complaint effectively kicked off the House’s impeachment inquiry, which began in late September amid allegations that Trump had solicited foreign interference in the 2020 election when he asked Ukraine’s president to investigate his political opponents, including Joe Biden.
Atkinson opposed the decision by then-acting director of national intelligence Joseph Maguire to withhold the whistleblower complaint from the House and Senate intelligence committees — in particular, Maguire’s decision to seek guidance on the issue from the Justice Department, rather than turn it over to Congress as required by law.
The impasse highlighted the fact that whistleblower protection laws never envisioned a scenario in which the director of national intelligence would withhold a complaint from lawmakers — especially one the inspector general had deemed “urgent” after investigating the matter. Nor did they envision a scenario in which an intelligence agent would blow the whistle on the president, whose unique legal status made the situation unprecedented.
Atkinson was nominated by Trump in November 2017 after serving 16 years at the Justice Department. The inspector general conducts investigations and reviews of activities within the purview of the director of national intelligence, and also handles whistleblower complaints from within the intelligence community.
The issue of whistleblower protection was a central focus of Atkinson’s confirmation hearing, where he pledged to establish “a safe program where whistleblowers do not have fear of retaliation and where they’re confident that the system will treat them fairly and impartially.”
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiZGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnBvbGl0aWNvLmNvbS9uZXdzLzIwMjAvMDQvMDMvdHJ1bXAtZmlyZXMtaW50ZWxsaWdlbmNlLWNvbW11bml0eS1pbnNwZWN0b3ItZ2VuZXJhbC0xNjQyODfSAWhodHRwczovL3d3dy5wb2xpdGljby5jb20vYW1wL25ld3MvMjAyMC8wNC8wMy90cnVtcC1maXJlcy1pbnRlbGxpZ2VuY2UtY29tbXVuaXR5LWluc3BlY3Rvci1nZW5lcmFsLTE2NDI4Nw?oc=5
2020-04-04 02:44:16Z
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