[ctdonath2]

My insta-take: Schiff just had the rug yanked out from under his impeachment investigation. Hard.

[Reily]

The timing of this may be setting the stage for a quick dismissal of the “bill of impeachment”.

[DannyTN]

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.

[Swordmaker]

This legal counsel opinion was transmitted to the DNI and the Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson on September 3, 2019, three days before he went ahead and transmitted the complaint to Chairmen Schiff and Burr of the House and Senate Intelligence Oversight Committees, despite being told both he and they had no justifiable legal jurisdiction.

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?