Page 5 - Intelligence Activity News Today

Concluded that it was not an urgent matter and that they would try to hide this from congress. tell me why you think that. >> yes. so the question here has always been why exactly the dni was refusing to forward this whistle blowing complaint to the intelligence committees, which is required by law. its not optional. so the question was what the dni general counsel had said was that they didnt believe that this complaint met the statutory definition, that it wasnt an urgent concern related to an...

What do you think of the that? >> it could be legal opinion provided by the attorney general, it could be legal counsel inside the white house, or it could be conversations with the president. the president said dont share it. we simply dont know. >> i mean, youre talking there about the possibilities of what this information could be. one thing has to do with what is going on, intelligence activity. the guidance that has come or the reason that the dni is not releasing that, he says, is because...

Intelligence, theyre not he heading an agency, theyre overseeing the coordination of the intelligence community. >> right. but, you know, the dni is subject to senate confirmation. so, you know, the only person technically he reports to is the president. i mean, if you want to be literal, i believe, on an organizational chart, the only person above him is the president of the united states. >> asha, what about the rationale for not turning over the complaint. that it doesnt meet the definition o...

Head headening an agency. theyre overseeing the coordination of the intelligence community. >> right. but, you know, the dni is subject to senate confirmation. so, you know, the only person technically he reports to is the president. i mean, if you want to be literal, i believe, on an organizational chart, the only person above him is the president of the united states. >> asha, what about the rationale for not turning over the complaint, that it doesnt meet the definition of being an urgent con...

There is a line where they define urgent concern, and it, you know, urgent concern involves a flagrant abuse of power, a problem relating to an intelligence activity that is, dot, dot, dot, within the responsibility and authority of the director of national intelligence. and i believe thats where they got that. however, it seems apparent to me that the inspector general for the intelligence community determined that this was an intelligence community activity within the purview of the odni and, ...

There is a line where they define urgent concern, and it, you know, urgent concern involves a flagrant abuse of power, a problem relating to an intelligence activity that is, dot, dot, dot, within the responsibility and authority of the director of national intelligence. and i believe thats where they got that. however, it seems apparent to me that the inspector general for the intelligence community determined that this was an intelligence community activity within the purview of the odni and, ...

Process would take its course and, you know, let whoever needs to be held accountable be held accountable. this whistleblower did indeed feel there was enough of a concern that the inspector general should look into it, and the ig, as ken noted, did deem this complaint to be credible and found that it was something within -- that met the definition of intelligence activity and something that needed to be raised. in fact the ig then took this complaint to the dni, the director of national intelli...

Intelligence activity. and if the inspector general finds that it meets that standard and after looking at the information finds that its credible, he has to send it to the director of national intelligence who shall,,quote/unquote, within seven days, tell congress about it. and so that is what -- the way the law is written, it sounds like the inspector general makes the determination that this meets that standard, and then there is no choice. congress has to know within seven days, it can stay ...

On the whistle-blower complaint we told you about at the top of the hour. this complaint filed by a member of the intelligence community about president trumps phone call with an unidentified foreign leader. lets go right to ken dilanian who coffers national security and intelligence. ken, what have you learned? >> our colleague julia ainsley heard from a department of justice official that the dojs office of legal counsel was involved in and consulted with director of national intelligence on i...

In this letter we obtained, the acting dni says that first of all he didnt have enough time to supply with the subpoena. just two business days. but then this is the crux of the matter. he says he doesnt carry this complaint to be of urgent concern. why? because even though the whistle-blower does come from the intelligence community, the complaint according to this is about the executive branch, the trump administration. now the inspector general of the intelligence community had found this com...