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Schiff Knew of Ukraine Whistleblower’s Complaint Before It Was Filed
The New York Times has reported that Trump bête noire Rep. Adam Schiff (D–CA) knew about the Ukraine whistleblower’s complaint before it was filed. This revelation gives the president’s supporters more evidence that the anonymous CIA officer’s filing is a partisan effort.
Two weeks ago, Schiff claimed on MSNBC that he hadn’t spoken with the whistleblower. Well, his phrasing was a bit more lawyerly than that:
“We have not spoken directly with the whistleblower,” Schiff said on Sept. 17. The “we” and “directly” seem to be doing the heavy lifting here.
In Wednesday’s Times article, Schiff spokesman Patrick Boland admitted: “like other whistleblowers have done before and since under Republican and Democratic-controlled committees, the whistleblower contacted the committee for guidance on how to report possible wrongdoing within the jurisdiction of the intelligence community.”
And the whistleblower just happened to consult the most impeachment-happy member of Congress.
The White House was quick to react:
In a news conference in the East Room of the White House after this article was published, Mr. Trump called it a scandal that Mr. Schiff knew the outlines of the whistle-blower’s accusations before he filed his complaint.
“Big stuff. That’s a big story,” Mr. Trump said, waving a copy of the article in the air. “He knew long before and helped write it, too. It’s a scam,” the president added, accusing Mr. Schiff of helping the whistle-blower write his complaint. There is no evidence that Mr. Schiff did, and his spokesman said he saw no part of the complaint before it was filed.
The whistle-blower’s decision to offer what amounted to an early warning to the intelligence committee’s Democrats is also sure to thrust Mr. Schiff even more forcefully into the center of the controversy.
On Wednesday, Mr. Trump said Mr. Schiff should be forced to resign for reading a parody of the Ukraine call at a hearing, an act Mr. Trump has called treasonous and criminal.
“We don’t call him shifty Schiff for nothing,” said Mr. Trump. “He’s a shifty dishonest guy.”
Despite the blockbuster revelation, the Times piece subtly implies that Schiff and his office did nothing wrong while it casts the President in an unflattering light. This leads me to believe that the California congressman fed this news to the NYT before it was revealed by a more skeptical outlet.
Published in Politics
If Adam Schiff’s as good of a lawyer as he is at being a politician and at keeping secrets without tweeting hints out to the world, I wouldn’t want him writing my legal complaint, if I were the whistleblower.
There are two things going on in DC right now.
One is trying to impede an investigation into the DNC, the Clinton campaign, protect Joe Biden, and more importantly protect Obama.
The second is to influence the 2020 election and keep the impeachment story on the front page right up to election day.
Never have so many done so little for the United States.
Doug,
Well said. It is a contemptible power-hungry greed that motivates them to ignore the National Interest and press on for their own benefit.
Regards,
Jim
The left has always had something of an ‘evil/idiot’ projection at any Republican president or presidential candidate, where that person is a moron when they want him or her to be a moron, and the embodiment of the darkest forces of humanity when he or she has to be that. But their projection when it comes to Trump has taken that metric to Warp Factor 15.
He’s either a barely-functioning cretin or a totalitarian mastermind, depending on what hour of the day it is, and which talking head or keyboard pundit is speaking or writing. Pick one or the other, but they can’t because they need to portray Trump as both to maintain the 24/7/365 hyperbolic fear cycle
We need to plug the leaks. And the leakers.
Bzzzt. You can’t cross the Warp 10 threshold without turning into a salamander. Everyone knows that.
The whistle blower will be a footnote to the story.
Trump cannot stopping firing his guns at his feet. So the story now is that he is ramping up pressure on China.
First rule of holes: stop digging.
Hey, watching how the Democrats are acting mentally right now, I think my Warp 15 comment still holds.
At the end of the much anticipated, agonizingly slow process of unraveling the origin story of the Trump Russia Collusion cluster schtoop(ie: The conclusion of the Durham investigation) ….. the exact people we knew were responsible will be shown to have done exactly what we already knew they did.
Some may face some criminal prosecution, but never the less, the MSM/(D)/Culture machine will turn it all into a vast Right Wing conspiracy and never accurately report the obvious unprecedented FBI/DO/IC malfeasance.
The MSM/(D)/Culture machine will vilify the investigators and create peripheral “squirrel” issues to distract and give those predisposed to Trump hatred something to hold onto to give them permission to “not see” the most egregious abuse of power by our Federal law enforcement and counter intelligence agencies in the history of the United States.
We get to see these MSM/(D)/Culture machine professionally produced information campaigns roll out every few weeks, so don’t expect any thing different when the Durham Report is made public.
“Ramping up pressure” or legitimately asking them to investigate something we have an actual predicate for (as opposed to Russia Colluuuusion)? It’s only shooting yourself in the foot if you think there is no predicate or appearance of Biden corruption and influence peddling. Do you really think that?
Good observation. Their plate is overflowing at the moment. That’s very positive. Their chances of messing up publicly rise the more they try to do; makes one wonder just how far into comedy the media can go before the preference cascade resets the discussion.
Ed, your response seems overly credulous.
I did complain about lack of follow-up by the NYT. But look at the context. An official spokesman for Schiff says that the leaking-leaker (I mean whistleblower) “contacted the committee for guidance.” Maybe this was only an inquiry, and no such guidance was given. But then, why not say so? Why not say something like: “The leaking-leaker contacted the committee for guidance, which he should not have done. The committee gave no guidance beyond suggesting that the leaking-leaker report his allegations to the appropriate executive authorities.”
Jerry: “So the fact that the whistleblower “contacted the committee for guidance” is, somehow, not evidence that Mr. Schiff helped the whistleblower write his complaint?”
Add that to the fact that the complaint was written in a very lawyerly way indicating knowledge of how best to write whistleblowing complaints; so from those facts the evidence appears to show overwhelmingly that Schiff and his minions were the ones who actually wrote the complaint- a very tardy set of affairs. The Democrats are making a very good case that they should not be given any power whatsoever to run anything or have any affect on government affairs. They are simply without any respect for the Rule of Law, without any integrity and without any honor. They need to get a good electoral whooping.
There are so many things wrong with this whistleblowing episode from the unseemly behavior of Schiff, to the unseemly behavior of the Intel IG and to the unseemly behavior of the acting DNI that one needs to reach for a barf bag. Trump’s rights were clearly grossly violated and all involved with this con should prosecuted, convicted and packed off to prison for a very long time. Far too much of the government has gone rogue – a criminal cleansing needs to happen muy pronto.
Jerry, I’m not going to the mats over this, but I stand by what I said: the fact of contact is not proof that Schiff helped write the complaint. I’m not sure what you think I’m overly credulous about. I don’t credit anyone with credulity, least of all Schiff. However, nor am I willing to insist that my own reasonable speculation is as good as true.
It is not a legitimate “ask”. There is no investigation in the US. No US laws broken.
The FBI investigation into the Trump campaign was wrong on 2 counts:
Once again, we see Trump asking for a foreign government to “investigate” a US citizen. That is an abuse of power.
None of this matters. It matters not if the complaint was done in crayon, and transcribed by the whistle blowers 9 year old daughter. First hand, second hand, none of this matters. It’s written and now it is public. And now must be dealt with.
The basis of the complaint is known to be true. And this has been confirmed by the transcript, by Juliani and by Trump.
Is this satire? We have plenty of good ammunition to use without this kind of speculation. How will this help the overall argument that 1) the transcript contradicts what is being alleged, and 2) asking about high level corruption with real predicate is entirely legitimate function of the president in foreign relations?
Bill, if Joe Biden had a Ukrainian prosecutor fired – and there is enough predicate to justify an inquiry – and that prosecutor may have been investigating a company from which Biden’s son was receiving $50k per month, would any US laws have been broken? Even if no laws had been broken, would you consider that to be corruption? I would. I think it’s a legitimate ask considering Biden Jr.’s windfall and Biden Sr.’s bragging about having the guy fired.
President Trump was 1) asking about the Russia colluuuusion case and 2) asking if there was any monkey business in firing the prior prosecutor who Biden bragged about having fired and who might have had an open investigation into a company on which Biden’s son was “earning” money for …… who knows what.
I repeat: It’s only shooting yourself in the foot if you think there is no predicate or appearance of Biden corruption and influence peddling. Do you really think that?
I’m not sure about the “once again.” What was the first time?
Also, what makes this an abuse of power? If our government officials are shown to have meddled in the affairs of other countries (and Biden actually bragged about threatening Ukraine), why is it wrong for our President to ask for an investigation?
That “abuse of power” line is tossed out there as if it’s self-evident. It’s not.
In this whole affair, I still haven’t heard a good reason why it’s wrong for two nations to work together to uncover wrongdoing? Whether it’s Biden’s little extortion gambit, or Ukraine’s involvement in our elections.
Haven’t we been told for three years that Russia meddled in our elections, and this is bad bad bad! So the President asks the Ukraine to look into it, and now that’s the bad thing?
Agreed, as the head of the Executive Branch of the federal government, it’s his job to enforce the laws. If Joe Biden broke the law, then he should be investigated, and that investigation is through the authority inherent in the President.
[conspiracy theory with FTL lizard-journalists]
Not many journalists are lizards.
Outside of New York City.
Once again the (D)/MSM/Culture combine have lugged out the “working with a foreign government to effect US election” concept …. because after 3 years of proving the “election interference” concept origins were a fabrication of the FBI/DOJ/IC (probably the charming John Brennan), and that there never was any “working with a foreign government to effect US election”, the fine folks of the (D)/MSM/Culture club have in fact succeeded in planting concept into the melons of the US citizenry that ANY ACT peripheral, unintentional, part of the responsibility of the office, which can possibly be interpreted as “working with a foreign government to effect US election” is ….if not criminal …. then certainly impeachable.
And do you know why we all believe this: Because the (D)/MSM/John Brennan/James Comey/Andrew McCabe/Rachel Maddow/Fredo Cuomo/Brian Stelter/Joe Scarborrough/Stephen Colbert/Robert DeNiro/I could go on …. Say So.
So the people who really matter have decreed and now we must must obey and believe what they tell us to believe.
Do you have something against /Jonah?
I was only including those in the MSM/Culture combine to whom the consuming public know exist.
Yes.
Don’t underestimate the power of the wiggle/giggle.
We must be living in an alternative universe. The only factual evidence of a quid pro quo with Ukraine happens to have come from Joe Biden and the Obama administration, and yet Trump, who asked to investigate a crime, is the one on trial.
Where is creepy Joe anyway? Notice how he’s disappeared.
They are in a life and death struggle. Impeachment is for real, and if he doesn’t get impeached, it will destroy Trump’s re-election rationale if their narrative is upheld. Trump needs to be firing back with all guns. And personally I think he’s handling this quite well. Their narrative has now fallen apart. But it took resistance.
Ace of Spades just posted a clip of Chuck Todd characterizing the president as publicly soliciting foreign governments to interfere in the 2020 election. It’s just astounding to me: Chuck Todd is skipping a few steps, the biggest being that it’s not illegitimate if the Bidens were corrupt – and I think it’s at least worth inquiry because the appearance is that they certainly were corrupt. That is worth investigating; that is identifiable cause to investigate. It would be obvious if this were Ivanka on the hook instead of Biden Jr.