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-Lurid Crime Tales-

Senators Blast Intel Community IG For Continuing To Stonewall Congress On Whistleblower Rule Changes

2019-10-17

[The Federalist] Three top senators blasted the intelligence community inspector general (ICIG) Michael Atkinson for continuing to stonewall congressional efforts to determine why whistleblower rules and forms requiring firsthand information were suddenly changed last month. As The Federalist first reported and the ICIG confirmed in a subsequent press release, whistleblower forms and guidance requiring all complaints to contain firsthand information were secretly changed and then backdated after the ICIG received an anti-Trump complaint that consisted entirely of second-hand information.

Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., and Mike Lee, R-Utah, wrote Atkinson on Wednesday demanding answers about his office’s actions and behavior regarding the whistleblower rules changes. The lawmakers expressed dismay at his refusal to answer their previous queries on the matter.

"[W]e are concerned that you are ’unable to explain how or why the language [about how the ICIG must be in possession of reliable, firsthand information] was included, or how it came into use’ in the informational sheet," the three lawmakers wrote. "The information we seek and the questions we are asking should be easily obtained or answered especially in light of your testimony before the intelligence committees."

"We expect that this ‐ our third request ‐ will be the final time that we have to request that you provide full and complete answers to the Committees," they tersely noted.

Grassley, Johnson, and Lee noted that Atkinson had refused to answer 13 separate questions regarding the secret changes his office made to whistleblower rules after it received a complaint that was built entirely on second-hand information and gossip and riddled with errors.

They wrote that Atkinson’s responses to their previous letters "mostly repeated information from your press release and failed to answer the vast majority of the questions" they had asked. In addition to directing Atkinson to fully respond to those 13 questions instead of stonewalling, the senators posed an additional question about whether the anti-Trump complainant may have lied on the form he submitted to the ICIG.

Posted by:Besoeker

#1 Draw a line through their 2020 budget. They'll quickly end the stonewalling.

Posted by: Besoeker 2019-10-17 00:29

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