Schiff Blindsides Trump With Weekend Subpoena Announcement

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When a mob boss wants to entangle someone in his organization, he implies or even outright tells them that they should commit a crime. In order to please the man they respect and are perhaps fearful of if they do not comply, these underlings do it. That means they are complicit. This is how Donald Trump appears to operate.

House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff (D-CA) discovered that the acting director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire had potentially committed a crime. The chair formally accused the acting director Maguire of what amounted to an illegal action, keeping a complaint away from the Intelligence Committee.

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Schiff filed a subpoena with Maguire in the form of a letter. In it, he accused Maguire of this remarkable act, withholding  a whistleblower’s complaint from Congress, even after the intel community’s inspector general said that the complaint was credible and of “urgent concern:”

The Intelligence Committee chair wrote:

‘As Acting Director of National Intelligence, you have neither the legal authority nor the discretion to overrule a determination by the [Intelligence Community Inspector General]. Moreover, you do not possess the authority to withhold from the Committee a whistleblower disclosure from within the Intelligence Community that is intended for Congress.’

Schiff noted that the withholding of this complaint was possibly a crime in the highest level of the Trump administration. He continued:

‘The Committee can only conclude, based on this remarkable confluence of factors, that the serious misconduct at issue involves the President of the United States and/or other senior White House or Administration officials.”’

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The Intelligence Committee chair added that this could be “an unlawful effort to protect the president:”

‘This raises grave concerns that your office, together with the Department of Justice and possibly the White House, are engaged in an unlawful effort to protect the President and conceal from the Committee information related to his possible “serious or flagrant” misconduct, abuse of power, or violation of law.’

The committee panel found out that people not on the committee had privileged communications that might be vital in an ongoing investigation. Schiff said that the whistleblower complaint had been concealed.

Schiff told Maguire that it was illegal to not share that information with the Intelligence Committee. The subpoena dictated that the acting director had until September 17 to supply the information. Otherwise, Schiff would force Maguire to come before Congress in a public hearing on September 19:

‘The Committee – and the American people – must know why, in violation of the law, a whistleblower complaint is being concealed, whether the underlying conduct involves the President or those around him, and whether the White House is involved in trying to cover up this authorized disclosure.’

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According to Schiff, Maguire would not deny or confirm whether the whistleblower’s complaint had anything to do with an ongoing investigation by his committee. He also would not confirm whether anyone else in the White House, including its attorneys, had been involved in the incident.

The Mueller Report Adventures: In Bite-Sizes on this Facebook page. These quick, two-minute reads interpret the report in normal English for busy people. Mueller Bite-Sizes uncovers what is essentially a compelling spy mystery. Interestingly enough, Mueller Bite-Sizes can be read in any order.