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Transmitted to the hill because it did not rise to the level, threshold of an urgent concern as defined in the whistle-blower statute. its a little convoluted but one of the elements of that, he said, and he krielts the statute, is that the intelligence has to be under the responsibility and the authority of the dni and evidently the dni is claiming that this activity did not fall under its purview and as such this was not a valid complaint and could not be transmitted to congress. >> ellen naka...

Complaint to congress. what does that tell you? >> it was a mini act of profile that the inspector would be willing to reduce to writing. he set forth the way he thought the odnis decision which in our opinion clearly violates unambiguous black letter of the law. the role of the odni is that of a clerk. as a matter of fact every director of national intelligence has done that. even when it did not meet the threshold and thats what the inspector general deemed in this case that it was credible an...

Only a couple weeks after that. >> so what role did the department of justice potentially play here? is there a suspicion that doj told the dni not to release this to congress as they would be obligated to do? >> well, we do know that the dni went to the justice department, presumably the office of legal counsel and got some legal advice which resulted in this letter that dni sent back to the hill adam schiff, the chairman of the house intelligence committee in which he basically said that he di...

Director joseph maguire steps in and starting is scrambling and consulting others in the administration and officials at the justice department and puts the brakes on this process. and thats sort of where we are now and why this has blown up into a big controversy. >> on what basis has and did the dni refuse to turn this information over to congress to date? because the law says if the inspector general deems this matter to be of urgent concern, that is specific language, then the information is...

Hill and cnns manu raju. the i.g. agreed to come before the committee but apparently not agreed to say anything. >> yeah, he is laying out the process for how he handled this complaint, i am told, but he is not getting into the substance of that complaint, according to multiple sources. now, hes essentially telling lawmakers behind closed doors that the law -- hes not permitted under the law to detail exactly what the complaint says, because under the whistleblower act, the director of national ...

Question for both of us is what did he say? why did it concern this person enough to lodge the complain, and does it go to what your threshold is it a violation of the law? >> the question is did the individual heard something he was so offended by he felt he needed to report or did he hear something he thought reached the threshold of illegal. i would still & the question why did the intel guys have to report that, why doesnt he report that through another channel? >> i hear you. >> im going to...

Visitors to the threshold between the known and the. all this week weve been reporting on the international literature festival in berlin writers from around the world are here to give readings of discussion panels workshops and generally meet and greet their fellow walthers and of course their fans the writer and i asked a man will be with me in a minute but 1st more about the festival. celebration literature the international literature festival is happening now in the german capital p.d. you ...

Door classified meeting today on capitol hill. the president is already pushing back in the house intel chair is threatening to go to court. chief intelligence correspondent catherine herridge has the latest tonight. >> behind closed doors on capitol hill, the intelligence community inspector general michael atkinson briefed republicans and democrats on the house intelligence committee. the democratic chairman said the session did not confirm media reporting for the whistle-blower complaint invo...

Often at war with or superseding the interest of his own bureaucracy. we dont know what the activity is yet that is being alleged. what we do know is that the i.g. has said and met the threshold for reporting to congress. thats got to be pretty serious. there is now a debate over whether this law really replies to the president the whistles being blown on. but still if the i.g. thought it was serious enough, that is worrying to everybody, i should shink. think. >> its important to know, i mean, ...

Experienced people, theyre well versed in what the rules are. and by the way, people who would know that the president can divulge classified information to whomever he wants. and of course has done that before. so while we dont know precisely what this allegation centers on, i have to think it is something thats significant, as you pointed out, the inspector general thinks its significant. and i think we have to think about the source, the person who would have seen this would have been aware o...