Page 1069 - Wrongdoing News Today

The information that the whistleblower is a member of the intelligence committee, perhaps detailed over to the national security council. nick burns, you worked in the nec and know these relationships. that whistleblower, his or her identity is supposed to be protected. the white house, which is the suspected perpetrator here, if there is any wrongdoing, theyre not supposed to know the identity. so what phil just pointed out from the presidents freewheeling comments in the f oval office already ...

Whistle-blower to you directly congress if were not allowed to tell you what this complaint is about, and that may be something thats going on behind the scenes right now, a discussion about whether or not this whistle-blower can come forward with their own complaints and figure this out with the committees. right now at this moment, the acting director of national intelligence has not given any approval for that but that is one option for this whistle blower. >> jeremy bash, another aspect of w...

Up the chain with protections built in. >> well, the law is crystal clear, brian. if you are an intelligence community professional and you observe wrongdoing and you observe it in the context of our responsibilities as an intelligence community professional and you make a complaint about that, either to the congressional committees or to the inspector general, you cannot be retaliated against. you cant be fired. you cant be prosecuted. and so we have an individual, a very courageous individual ...

Comes to the drotable. we will use whatever we can, but at the end of the day, we are determined to validate the whistleblower process so people know they can expose wrongdoing. whats at stake here goes well beyond this complaint and this president to whether any oversight is possible, any whistleblower is protected, and were determined that validate that authority of the congress. >> you were watching adam schiff there, the democratic chairman of the house intelligence committee. were joined no...

They do an edward snowden and they decide that thats the best way to blow our secrets out into the public. so while it may seem complicated, at some level, this is very simple. there is a law that determines how somebody who thinks that there has been wrongdoing can come to the congress and the dni is right now illegally standing in the way of that process. >> but just to be clear, i mean, in terms of what this whistleblower has raised or alleged whistleblower has raised, at this point, we dont ...

Wait. which is a profound concern that we have over -- well, we have seen over the last year, which is a concerted strategy to run out the clock on any information getting to congress. here where its urgent, that is simply not an option. >> why were you not able to get an answer today about whether or not the white house intervened, and why are you not able to get an answer about the substance of the complaint? >> well, there is no privilege that covers whether the white house is involved in try...

Closed doors, what happens? they go to the press. they do an edward snowden, and they decide thats the best way, to blow our secrets out into the public. while it may seem complicated, at some level this is very simple. there is a law that somebody who thinks there has been wrongdoing can come to the congress, and the dni is right now illegally standing in the way of that process. >> in terms of what this whistle-blower has raised or alleged whistle-blower has raised, at this point, we dont know...

You know, right now were wondering why this complaint is not being turned over to us. mr. maguire has said a couple of things that are concerning. >> he, of course, is the acting chief of the dni. >> yes. mr. maguire, the chief of the dni has said that the individual about who the complainant made the complaint is outside of the intelligence community and that is somehow invoking some kind of privilege and it shields any wrongdoing and second, this is something that it doesnt matter whether its ...

Intelligence committee inspector general has just been in a hearing and talked about a whistleblower complaint against the president of the united states. lets watch. >> here where its urgent, that is simply not an option. >> why werent you able to get answers today and about the -- [inaudible] >> there is no privilege that covers whether the white house is involved in trying to stifle a whistleblower complaint. i should say that even if you could make a claim of privilege over the subject matte...

Director mcguire and the inspector general, who did find this of an urgent nature and the statute is clear, if that is the case, then he, acting or otherwise, is supposed to provide that information to congress. so in a sense, he has broken the law, and if there is nothing so damning here, then why isnt congress being divided with the information right when they requested a? that would be the proper chain of commandprocess not to followe process as its been laid out in the statute and been follo...