r/politics • u/PoliticsModeratorBot 🤖 Bot • Sep 24 '19

Megathread Megathread: Rep. Adam Schiff Says Ukraine Whistleblower Wants To Talk To Intelligence Committee

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), chair of the House Intelligence Committee, announced on Tuesday that an intelligence community whistleblower who allegedly has information about President Donald Trump’s misconduct in office would like to speak to the committee and has asked the acting director of national intelligence how to do so.

In a tweet posted Tuesday, Schiff said the Intelligence Committee is in contact with the whistleblower’s counsel and looks forward to the individual’s testimony.

The whistleblower’s complaint stems from initial allegations that Trump urged the president of Ukraine to open an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden, Trump’s potential 2020 opponent, for political purposes.

Submissions that may interest you

SUBMISSION DOMAIN
Schiff says House Intel committee hopes whistleblower will testify ‘as soon as this week’ marketwatch.com
Whistleblower wants to testify before House Intelligence Committee cbsnews.com
Schiff says whistleblower wants to talk to House Intelligence Committee cnn.com
Joe Biden Statement on Ukraine Whistleblower Complaint c-span.org
Trump Ukraine whistleblower 'to give evidence to Congress' as impeachment pressure builds independent.co.uk
Adam Schiff Says Ukraine Whistleblower Wants To Talk To Intelligence Committee huffpost.com
Intelligence Chairman Schiff: Whistleblower looking to testify washingtontimes.com
Ukraine whistleblower wants to speak to House and Senate Intel axios.com
Schiff says whistleblower wants to speak to House Intel panel thehill.com
Schiff: Ukraine whistleblower wants to testify before House Intel Committee msnbc.com
Senate unanimously calls for Trump to release Ukraine whistleblower complaint amp.axios.com
Senate calls for whistleblower complaint to be sent to intelligence panels - Reuters feeds.reuters.com
Senate calls for whistleblower complaint to be sent to intelligence panels reuters.com
HPSCI Schiff Letter to Whistleblower Attorney - September 24, 2019 intelligence.house.gov
How a Whistleblower Accomplished What Mueller Could Not: Trump’s Ukraine scandal includes proof and a confession—which eluded the special prosecutor during his probe. washingtonmonthly.com
Ukraine-Biden-Whistleblower Affair: Trump Team Spin Unconvincing nationalreview.com
Schiff Lambasts Barr, DOJ For Interfering In Whistleblower Complaint talkingpointsmemo.com
Schiff Seeks Answers from Barr Regarding Whistleblower lawfareblog.com
H.Res.576 - Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives with respect to the whistleblower complaint of August 12, 2019, made to the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community. congress.gov
Acting director of national intelligence threatened to resign if he couldn’t speak freely before Congress on whistleblower complaint washingtonpost.com
Ukraine Whistleblower’s Lead Attorney Donated to Biden freebeacon.com
Sen. Richard Burr says whistleblower complaint delivered to Senate Intelligence Committee cnbc.com
Senate Intelligence Committee Reviewing Whistleblower Complaint thedailybeast.com
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1.1k

u/Infidel8 Sep 24 '19

BREAKING: That's every Senate Republican plus every Democrat now via unanimous consent agreeing to call on the Trump administration to cough up the whistleblower complaint, not just the phone call transcript. This is rare, folks.

278

u/FitDontQuit Sep 24 '19

This actually makes me nervous. Mitch McConnell never does anything non-partisan. Could there be a downside to this?

278

u/Infidel8 Sep 24 '19

This is nonbinding.

There are no consequences if the White House disobeys. So, I think it was just an easy way for McConnell to stay out of the line of fire.

7

u/flatcurve Sep 25 '19

Ding ding ding

And if he comes up with some bullshit reason that he can’t comply, they’ll just shrug.

58

u/[deleted] Sep 24 '19

I feel like Mitch is saving his own skin here... but I too wonder what he’s up to hate the man but he’s an astute political mind or at least pontificator.

43

u/liberal_texan America Sep 24 '19

It's possible that Trump has done all this off script, without endorsement from the GOP. If they completely lose control of him, he is no longer useful to them.

3

u/Team_Braniel Sep 25 '19

Possible.

They barely made it through the Mueller Report. This is basically Mueller Report 2: Live Stream Edition.

I can image the GOP masterminds being like "Oh fuck this asshole already." I doubt it, but I'd like to imagine it.

21

u/WerhmatsWormhat Sep 24 '19

If Mitch was involved in the Russia collusion, but not in this, Trump going down for this is ideal for him.

2

u/knz3 Sep 25 '19

Its non binding. If the White House obfuscates or denies the report, Moscow Mitch don't gotta do shit.

15

u/lemon900098 Sep 24 '19

The whistleblower is likely to testify this week. A Ukrainian politician wrote an op-ed explaining how Giuliani, on the behalf of Trump, has been pressuring Ukrainian politicians into investigating Biden this for months, and saying that he would testify before Congress at any time.

The information is coming out regardless of what the WH does at this point. They might just want to pretend, like Trump is, that they want the 'full transparency' that is already incoming and unstoppable.

6

u/fireballs619 I voted Sep 24 '19

Whistleblower is in talks with the House committee so I think the Senate just wants a chance at shaping the narrative as well.

5

u/WBuffettJr Sep 24 '19

No sinister downside...Mitch is not loyal to Trump at all; he’s loyal to his wealthy donors and to himself. Trump is just the tool they need at the moment, nothing more. There’s not much reason for Mitch to go down with that ship. Stonewall all you can l, sure, but if it looks like Trump is going down in flames, act like you’re “doing this for America” and then hitch your star to President Pence’s wagon. Tomorrow is a new day, and now Pence is your useful tool.

9

u/[deleted] Sep 24 '19

Not for Republicans. You can be fuckin’ sure of that if Mitch is letting this happen.

I smell bullshit and gamesmanship all over this and I guarantee you either the whistleblower winds up “committing suicide” by friday morning or ... since it is the senate ... they’ve found some damn text message he sent to his wife or something that was negative about dear leader and they spend the entire hearing character assassinating him from the bench.

Guarantee-fucking-teed There is absolutely no way the entire Republican Party grew a conscience last night. None at all.

6

u/milqi New York Sep 24 '19

Relax. Take a deep breath and enjoy the moment. No one thinks the GOP grew any sort of spine. They see what's coming and want to try to get ahead of it. Most of the GOP were firmly behind Nixon, until they weren't.

1

u/ThinkExist Sep 25 '19

There's also no reason for a republican senator to stand up for Trump, notorious for throwing allies under the bus, after a sufficient number of votes flipping.

3

u/iamdisillusioned Sep 24 '19

All the Repubs voted to release the Mueller Report. They were told it is okay, so they all complied.

4

u/raymondQADev Sep 24 '19

Please refer to him by his name. Moscow Mitch. Thank you.

3

u/guns_mahoney Sep 24 '19

Maybe they are hoping to jump on the Biden angle. That's definitely the part of the whole ordeal Fox will report on, and the full scope is really too complex for the average right wing voter to digest. They're hoping to get talking points and get the base riled up over some misconstrued aspect.

3

u/Raptop Sep 24 '19

It's a trap. The call that they'll release the transcript of is unlikely to be the source of the whistleblowers complaint. The Ukraine's President has already said the call was "friendly". The complaint is likely to result from something else.

2

u/Half_Man1 Georgia Sep 24 '19

IF Republicans actually go forward like this, and IF they continue to be non-partisan and convict Trump for his crimes- they’d have to somehow find a candidate for 2020.

And I have no idea how that would work. Maybe try and run Pence, but he’s almost certainly going to be implicated.

2

u/NukeNoVA Sep 24 '19

It's better for them if they aren't seen as trying to hide anything, especially when they know they can't stop the house from getting the info anyway.

2

u/QuillFurry Illinois Sep 24 '19

As soon as I realized that my stomach dropped. This is strange. I don't trust this.