Posted on 01/13/2020 11:37:30 AM PST by Swordmaker
My insta-take: Schiff just had the rug yanked out from under his impeachment investigation. Hard.
The timing of this may be setting the stage for a quick dismissal of the “bill of impeachment”.
Sorry....the Republicans should call one witness....the whistleblower. And I'm betting that he/she/it has already testified.
The conclusion by the Assistant AG in DOJ was that “The alleged misconduct is not an “urgent concern” within the meaning of the statute because it does not concern “the funding, administration, or operation of an intelligence activity...does not include allegations of wrongdoing arising outside of any intelligence activity or outside the intelligence community itself.”BUT...
”Our conclusion that the “urgent concern” requirement is inapplicable does not mean that the DNI or the ICIG must leave such allegations unaddressed. To the contrary...requires reporting to the Attorney General of “[a]ny information, allegation, matter, or complaint witnessed, discovered, or received in a department or agency . . . relating to violations of Federal criminal law involving Government officers and employees...should the DNI or the ICIG receive a credible complaint of alleged criminal conduct that does not involve an “urgent concern,” the appropriate action is to refer the matter to the Department of Justice, rather than to report to the intelligence committees...the ICIG’s letter and the attached complaint have been referred to the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice for appropriate review.So the whistle blower complaint was ILLEGALLY referred to the Congressional committee by the whistleblower himself and the DOJ was assigned to look into the complaint.
I didn’t read the whole piece but this isn’t new. It was known back in September.
Miy take is that this doesn’t matter because the IG did transmit it.
This only matters in investigating why the IG transmitted it. It does nothing to mitigate the charges. But the charges aren’t valid charges.
Rudy was suggesting that the Republicans should move to dismiss in that the two articles of impeachment do not constitute any of the 4 consitutional requirements.
Article II, Section 4 provides: The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.
I think he equated the articles to if someone indicted him for eating ice cream. If it somehow made it past a grand jury a judge would dismiss it as it’s not a crime.
This was also paralleled by a similar opinion from the career legal counsels in the DOJ.
One interesting reported fact is that is that ICIG Atkinson’s transmittal letter to the oversight committees, which included his complaints about the handling by the DNI who had yet to take office, had meta data showing it was created on August 12, 2019, the same day he reportedly received the original complaint, two weeks before he sent said complaint to the DNI, and three weeks before the DNI’s statutory deadline for action. How is that possible unless this was all scripted and prepared in advance?
The FBI, CIA etc. already know what Mr. Hunter Biden did for...no, What China did for Hunter Biden....it is not unusual for politician's children to be on the receiving end of quid pro quo $$$$$$$...however it is criminal.
Note the first asterisked foot note. This is the public version of a still classified version of the document that was transmitted to the DNI and ICIG dated September 3, 2019. That is the unexpurgated date which included some additional classified data. This one was dated one day before the public announcement of the release of the complaint and the phone call which were actually released on the afternoon of September 26, 2019.
Ah, September 3. Not today-ish.
Too foggy to follow the metadata map, but trust it doesn’t bode well for Schiff et al.
Might explain the weasel-wording surrounding declarations of “impeachment” terminology.
Methinks the “misdemeanors” bit was intended to cover “anything else of gratuitous & intolerable malice or maladministration”, such as being inaugurated and then immediately moving to Fiji and refusing all communications (he’d still be President and not broken any laws, committed treason, nor solicited bribes) - there has to be a mechanism to remove a President for whatever a majority in the House agree is sufficient reason to consider and a supermajority in the Senate agrees warrants removal. “Please Mr Foreign Leader, investigate possible corruption into someone seeking my Office” isn’t it.
Agreed. Misdemeanors probably does cover it. But Rudy’s a lawyer and I’m not.
Also the Obstruction of Congress is not a legitimate charge, but Contempt of Congress is. At least one source is linking the two. But I don’t think a Contempt of Congress charge would stick, since Executive Privilege is a thing and the house-rats didn’t pursue the matter in court.
The “obstruction” charge fails because there’s a reasonable debate to be had over applying “executive privilege” and SCOTUS agreed to have that debate.
House Dems jumped the gun by pushing “obstruction” while failing to follow the legally prescribed process for this particular “abuse” charge, which culminates in an obligatory SCOTUS filing.
Neither Article reached the necessary Supreme Court review. Impeachment is DOA on that alone, dismissible with prejudice (”take it away and don’t bring it back”).
Agreed, obstruction fails since they didn’t pursue the court remedy.
I don’t think they are required to file abuse charges with SCOTUS first. But if they have to make a case on how he abused his office. I don’t think a case made on he was looking at democrat corruption is going to fly.
The Office of Legal Counsel opinion was made known to the corrupt IC IG and he ignored it and sent the fraudulent complaint to Schiff anyway.
This has never been about a legitimate IC complaint but was a carefully orchestrated conspiracy to obstruct justice and head off the cooperation between the US AG, William Barr, and his Ukrainian counterparts who have credible evidence of money laundering and bribery crimes involving the Bidens. The impeachment hoax is all part of the greatest political crime in US history.
The swamp people don’t care about the law, they ARE the law.
Well, the “abuse” hinges on delaying Ukraine payments more than 45 days. Schiff’s reaction was “your 45 days are up, ergo you’re abusing your power” when the law actually says “after 45 days of delays, the Comptroller General may give Congress 25 days’ notice that civil suit will be brought compelling payments” (which presumably will rise to SCOTUS level if it’s impeachment-level serious).
The ICIG has yet to be adequately questioned on why the whistleblower form was modified and backdated to allow for second-hand reporting.
Bookmark- monitor ICIG
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