We’ve all been wondering about the subject of the whistleblower complaint being withheld by Acting DNI Joseph Maguire from the House Select Intelligence Committee.
Tonight, Washington Post has a hint for us. Twitter is exploding with speculation, and why should they be the only ones?
From Adam Schiff’s letter to Maguire, it can be surmised that the incident that provoked the whistleblower’s concern had to do with someone in the White House.
From WaPo:
The whistleblower complaint that has triggered a tense showdown between the U.S. intelligence community and Congress involves President Trump’s communications with a foreign leader, according to two former U.S. officials familiar with the matter.
Trump’s interaction with the foreign leader included a “promise” that was regarded as so troubling that it prompted an official in the U.S. intelligence community to file a formal whistleblower complaint with the inspector general for the intelligence community, said the officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
What was the “promise”? And which foreign leader?
Have at it. Here are some tweets.
JUST IN: The Acting Director of National Intelligence will testify publicly before the House Intel committee on Sept 26 in relation to the whistleblower complaint received by ODNI. The Intel community inspector general will testify in closed session tomorrow, per @RepAdamSchiff pic.twitter.com/wfTXjlh7MP
— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) September 18, 2019
Big detail buried in article on whistleblower complaint @RepAdamSchiff escalated:
"The individual once worked on the staff of the White House National Security Council, which frequently borrows intelligence community personnel"https://t.co/AQPNQMRtFrhttps://t.co/kpkyDEl9Wg
— Wendy Siegelman (@WendySiegelman) September 17, 2019
What if the whistleblower complaint is not Sue Gordon but John Bolton?
— emptywheel (@emptywheel) September 19, 2019
The White House readout made mention of only Siberian wildfires and trade as topics of discussion. The Russians, as their tweet above suggests, came away think normalization of relations was on the table. ?
— Ned Price (@nedprice) September 19, 2019
So, if this is a senior IC guy, he can't be filing over something the President has the right to do, like reveal classified info. I wonder if the "promise" contravened U.S. law, and thereby made it legit territory for a whistleblower complaint. https://t.co/2190Z5okLx
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) September 19, 2019