With the Congressional investigations dragging on and being met by relentless stonewalling from Republicans, I’m beginning to think that the only way we can finally uncover the truth about Trump is through a whistleblower such as this. I wish more would find the courage to step forward. We need a Daniel Ellsberg.
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A break in who’s willing to put their neck out…and reveal what’s really going on…
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Could this be the whistle blower…??
She left the position in August…
WASHINGTON—President Trump’s top Russia adviser is leaving her position in August and will be succeeded by the current head of the National Security Council’s office of nonproliferation, Tim Morrison, a spokesman for the council said.
Fiona Hill, a Russia expert and staunch critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has held the position since March 2017.
Mr. Morrison joined the NSC in July 2018, shortly after John Bolton became the president’s top national security adviser. Mr. Morrison previously served as the Policy Director on the House Armed Services Committee.
Ms. Hill had just assumed her position at the NSC when Mr. Trump invited Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, and its top diplomat to the U.S., Sergey Kislyak, into the Oval Office for a meeting, drawing criticism from many in the foreign policy community.
It was later reported that Mr. Trump shared classified information he had received from Israel with the Russian visitors.
Ms. Hill was also part of Mr. Trump’s expanded meetings with Mr. Putin. Before joining the White House, she had written extensively about the need to exert greater pressure on Russia. She came to the White House from the Brookings Institution after serving as the National Intelligence Council’s top intelligence officer for Russia and Eurasia.>
Her 2013 biography, “Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin,” portrayed a corrupt leader attempting to balance his various public personas in an effort to hang on to power.
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And could this be the phone call? It fits the time frame. And it was a call that the White House was very reluctant to admit even occurred. They said it was about adoptions, I mean wildfires.
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Chairman Schiff Announces Upcoming Committee Events Related to Whistleblower Complaint
Today, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, released the following statement:
“The Intelligence Community Inspector General (IC IG) has agreed to appear before the House Intelligence Committee for a briefing on the handling of the whistleblower complaint tomorrow morning, September 19, in closed session at 9:00 am.
“The Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire has agreed to testify in open session before the Committee next Thursday, September 26 at 9:00 am.
“The IC IG determined that this complaint is both credible and urgent, and that it should be transmitted to Congress under the clear letter of the law. The Committee places the highest importance on the protection of whistleblowers and their complaints to Congress.”
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More on Fiona Hill…She was known as a ‘realist’ on her views about Russia - and this article is from Sept 2018…so she hung around T for a while. She sounds like a straight shooter (so to speak.)
WASHINGTON — Three days after Chechen terrorists killed more than 300 people at a school they’d seized in southern Russia in 2004, Fiona Hill, a British-American scholar, visited Russian President Vladimir Putin at Novo-Ogaryovo, his estate outside of Moscow.
Hill was part of a delegation of Westerners invited to hear about how the Kremlin planned to counter the insurgency that had roiled Chechnya for more than a decade. She came away impressed and at least partially convinced, as she made evident in an op-ed subsequently published in the New York Times: “Stop Blaming Putin and Start Helping Him.”
Last summer, Hill sat across from the Russian president once again. This time, the setting was the presidential palace in Helsinki, at the bilateral summit between Putin and President Trump. Hill, who’d joined the National Security Council two months into the Trump presidency as director of Russian and European affairs, sat between White House chief of staff John Kelly and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at a working lunch with senior diplomats. She was one of only two women in the room.
Coverage of the Helsinki summit focused on the joint press conference afterward, during which the American president declined to reprimand his Russian counterpart for interfering in the 2016 elections.
But Helsinki also represented a remarkable achievement for a woman who may understand Putin better than anyone in the American foreign policy establishment. Even more remarkable is that she has brought that expertise to an administration that has been accused of coddling the Kremlin.
For nearly two decades, Hill has followed Putin’s trajectory, from the glum apparatchik presiding over the chaotic post-Yeltsin years to the modern-day czar who flouts international law and is suspected of hiding tens of billions of dollars in personal wealth abroad. That has earned her a top position in a White House split between those who admire the Kremlin and those who fear it. Between them stands a coal miner’s daughter, trying to negotiate a path both factions can countenance.
Trump has bestowed considerable authority on a woman who has none of the usual markers of influence in the Trump administration. Hill is not a billionaire, nor a Fox News regular. She does not golf or tweet. In a city of partisanship and self-promotion, Hill eschews both. People who’ve known her for years profess not to know her political affiliation.
In that sense, she’s almost certainly not part of the “resistance” described in a recent op-ed in the New York Times by a senior member of the Trump administration, who praised the president’s national security team for countering Trump’s worst instincts, including his “preference for autocrats and dictators, such as President Vladimir Putin of Russia.” Hill was proposed by some, including CNN’s Chris Cillizza, as the author of the op-ed. But at least one person who knows her says that’s impossible. Little in her career suggests the kind of sly political maneuvering the Times op-ed represented.
Yet Hill and her peers have managed to craft a Russia policy that is, by any measure — sanctions, expulsions, military buildup — tougher than that of the Obama administration. Trump has not always championed this approach, but he apparently hasn’t hindered Hill and her colleagues on the National Security Council or in the State Department from doing their work. He has, in effect, sanctioned a Russia policy that is entirely at odds with his own pronouncements.
One person who knows Hill well and worked with her on the NSC says Hill is not a Russia “hawk,” a term that suggests a desire for war, but “a realist,” one who “doesn’t want to be duped by the Russians,” the former official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity in order not to jeopardize past or present professional affiliations. Hill, whom the NSC declined to make available for an interview, is also unlikely to be rattled by Trump’s tweets, or by the baroque shows of disloyalty that regularly emanate from the White House. “Her job is not to keep up with the craziness of D.C.,” the former official said. That may be why Hill has kept her job, even as many around her have lost theirs.
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Pelosi says she would have held Lewandowski in contempt ‘right then and there’
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told a group of lawmakers Wednesday evening that Corey Lewandowski should have been held in contempt “right then and there” when he talked over members, dodged their questions and promoted his possible Senate campaign from a House hearing.
In a small huddle with lawmakers from across the caucus, Pelosi (D-Calif.) complained that no witness should be able to treat members of Congress like President Trump’s former campaign manager did during a Tuesday hearing before the House Judiciary Committee, according to three people familiar with the exchange.
“I would have held him in contempt right then and there,” she said.
Several lawmakers in the room took her remarks as a dig at House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), who chose not to hold Lewandowski in contempt for his defiant behavior on Tuesday
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So true. Also, there’s absolutely nothing about this on the Fox News page. Except there is this:
Wonder if Trump’s echo chamber will ask him anything about this – should be interesting to hear what spin he’s concocted.
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Yes…with that call to Putin about Wildfires/adoptions/whatevs…that content of the call was elaborated a bit more by the Russians. (from Slate Article - mentioned by @Keaton_James)
For one thing, the Trump administration stayed silent for several hours after the Russian government and media publicized the call earlier today. The Russian statement heralded the call as “a sign that fully-fledged bilateral relations could be restored in the future.”
and more questionable interactions with foreign heads, and possible set-ups for promises T would like to offer…
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T has broken his silence…a mere 12 hours since this story hit the airwaves. (I haven’t listened to the Fox & Friends episode yet.)
He starts off with an insult…“Anybody dumb enough…”
Here comes the spew…
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The internal watchdog for American spy agencies declined repeatedly in a briefing on Thursday to disclose to lawmakers the content of a potentially explosive whistle-blower complaint that is said to involve a discussion between President Trump and a foreign leader, according to two people familiar with the briefing.
During a private session on Capitol Hill, Michael Atkinson, the inspector general of the intelligence community, told lawmakers he was unable to confirm or deny anything about the substance of the complaint, including whether it involved the president, according to the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the closed-door conversation. The meeting was still underway
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[My hand shoots up.] “Ooh, ooh, me, in the back, I’m dumb enough to believe it.”
[Trump continues.] …that I would say something inappropriate with a foreign leader while on a potentially “heavily populated call. I would only do what is right anyway, and only do good for the USA!”
[My hand is up again.] Sir, how populated was the room when you asked Russia to hack Hillary’s email? I believe several million were listening. Other than saying this would be a really stupid crime, do you have any actual defense? BTW, we’re not talking about something “inappropriate” here or it never would have been flagged by the Inspector General. We’re talking about something potentially treasonous. Also BTW, what is up with those quotation marks – who are you quoting, sir? Yourself? Thank you for answering my qu…
[Trump turns and boards helicopter.]
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For detail,
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Potentially
The House Judiciary Committee is preparing to take initial steps to potentially hold former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski in contempt over his refusal to answer questions at this week’s hearing before the panel, multiple sources tell CNN.
But it is a process that could take weeks: First, a letter is expected to be sent to Lewandowski asking him to answer questions and warning him he can be held in contempt if he doesn’t answer. Then, they may offer a contempt resolution, officially notice a committee vote and then hold a vote in committee before any floor action.
Some Democrats have been irked by the failure to hold Lewandowski in contempt immediately during the hearing, according to Democratic sources. That flies in the face of current House rules that would have made the process quite cumbersome to immediately hold him in contempt at the hearing.
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House Intelligence Committee Stakeout
House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff speaks to reporters after a meeting with Intel Inspector General Michael Atkinson to discuss a whistleblower’s complaint about a reported conversation President Trump had with a world leader recently.
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Following his introductory remarks, Schiff removes from his breast pocket a letter from Inspector General Michael Atkinson and reads one crucial sentence (he will be releasing the entire letter soon). The following is transcribed from the video:
Schiff quoting the Inspector General: "I set forth the reasons for my concluding that the subject matter involved in the complainant’s disclosure not only falls within the DNI’s juristiction, but relates to one of the most significant and important of the DNI’s responsibilities to the American people."
Schiff continues in his own words, “This is what’s being withheld from Congress right now.”
This is an extremely grave matter. The Director of National Intelligence is jeopardizing the security of our nation by violating the law that requires he turn over this critical information.
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Whistleblower complaint about President Trump involves Ukraine, according to two people familiar with the matter
A whistleblower complaint about President Trump made by an intelligence official centers on Ukraine, according to two people familiar with the matter, which has set off a struggle between Congress and the executive branch.
The complaint involved communications with a foreign leader and a “promise” that Trump made, which was so alarming that a U.S. intelligence official who had worked at the White House went to the inspector general of the intelligence community, two former U.S. officials said.
Two and a half weeks before the complaint was filed, Trump spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, a comedian and political newcomer who was elected in a landslide in May.
That call is already under investigation by House Democrats who are examining whether Trump and his attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani sought to manipulate the Ukrainian government into helping Trump’s reelection campaign. Lawmakers have demanded a full transcript and a list of participants on the call.
A White House spokesperson declined to comment.
The Democrats’ investigation was launched earlier this month, before revelations that an intelligence official had lodged a complaint with the inspector general. The Washington Post first reported on Wednesday that the complaint had to do with a “promise” that Trump made when communicating with a foreign leader.
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Some legal heavyweights insights and suggestions for Rep Schiff -
What to do, what to do? Can they allowing the Whistleblower’s petition to go to Congressional Intell committee and avoid the DOJ’s assumed position of running interference for the President?
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