Page 1035 - Wrongdoing News Today

And, quote, multiple state department community intelligence officials were also briefed on the content of the call outlined above. and it gets even worse from there because after the whistle-blower is talking to all these people who are all pretty torn up about this, they think theyve watched the president violate his oath, abuse his power and he makes the complaint, takes the risk to make the complaint, and then the acting director of intelligence sends it over to the department of justice for...

Executive branch. but heres one you cant do that the executive privilege doesnt include the ability to interpret something in order to cover up corrupt abuse of power. and as you pointed out at the top of this show, the white house officials knew something had been done and they knew it t when they did it. >> i want to follow up on that because were going to end up with some big fight on privilege here. its to me inevitable in the same way the nixon tapes endsed up with a big fight on privilege....

General and the integrity of their work and how much he respects that as well as making sure that our whistleblowers do not have retaliation. those are very important part of uncovering wrongdoing in our government. and elijah has been just -- >> but the president yesterday suggested that they should be treated as traitors and should possibly be executed. >> well, you know, its really sad. we have to be very prayerful. i pray for the president all the time. i pray for the safety of his family, w...

That cover-up. but now theyre caught. what is this is about is the slow unraveling of that cover-up and the exposure of that wrongdoing. we all know that this is the presidents course of conduct. we all know that that database has other documents in it that they were hiding to avoid embarrassment. hes clearly not bound by any of the traditional norms or rules. i think its the beginning of the end, to be honest with you. but its important that those of us on the committee do this in a thoughtful ...

System is being abused to conceal wrongdoing is so prenishs, the white house council doesnt exist to be the presidents criminal defense lawyer. that is rudy giulianis some time job. i guess the other part of his job is to get the president out of criminal trouble. but the white house council is supposed to represent the office of the presidency. it doesnt represent the office of the presidency when it is helping the president conceal wrongdoing. but here we have such a blurring of the lines betw...

Against or prosecuted, if the white house and the justice department say, yeah, that law doesnt apply to this complaint, there is a question as to whether they will face retaliation or persecution or coming forward. on that point, the director of national intelligence did try to give a personal assurance today that as far as hes concerned the whistleblower should at least be allowed to come forward to congress. >> director, do i have your assurance that once you work out the security clearances ...

Concern. my question was not -- i did not question his judgment there. the question i had was does, in fact, this allegation of wrongdoing meet the criteria, the statutory criteria of urgent concern and the other issue, as i said, complicated things, did it, in fact, the allegations within this whistle-blower complaint involve executive privilege. >> thank you for clarifying that. have you ever -- you mentioned it a little bit in your testimony. but have you ever or are you aware of any former d...

Intelligence. >> but in this case, the president is the subject of the complaint. hes the subject of the wrongdoing. were you aware when you went to the white house for advice about whether evidence of wrongdoing by the white house should be provided to the congress, were you aware that the white house counsel has taken the unprecedented position that the privilege applies to communications involving the president, when he was president, involving the president when he wasnt president, involving...

The oversight and responsibility of the director of national intelligence. it does not allow a member of the intelligence community to wrong any wrongdoing that comes from anywhere in the federal government. so with that, i do believe that is about the intelligence of the whistle-blower act was the best vehicle that the whistle-blower had to use. and it came to me in discussion with the icig who is a colleague. and the determination was made by the -- well, that he viewed that it was, in fact, c...

Part of this, i have always worked with legal counsel. because of the magnitude and the importance of this decision -- sir, as a naval officer for years, i thought it would be prudent. my life would have been a lot simpler -- >> my question is when you were considering prudence, did you think it was prudent to give a veto power over whether congress saw this serious allegation of wrongdoing to the two people implicated by it, is that prudent? >> i have to work with the situation as it is, congre...