Donald Trump Whistleblower Complaint: Likely Evidence of 'Gross Abuse of Power' Claims Supreme Court Lawyer—'Truth Will Come Out'

Authored by newsweek.com and submitted by sketch24
image for Donald Trump Whistleblower Complaint: Likely Evidence of 'Gross Abuse of Power' Claims Supreme Court Lawyer—'Truth Will Come Out'

A Supreme Court lawyer has predicted that the reported whistleblower complaint made in response to President Donald Trump's discussions with an unnamed foreign leader will likely produce evidence of "gross" abuse of power.

Neal Katyal, who formerly served as acting solicitor general of the U.S., said on Twitter Tuesday that the nascent scandal could turn out to be "huge," given the apparent efforts of the Department of Justice and White House to squash the issue.

The Washington Post first reported the complaint on Tuesday. Citing two former U.S. officials with knowledge of the matter, the newspaper said an anonymous intelligence official reported a conversation between the president and a foreign leader that included a troubling "promise."

House Intelligence Committee Chairman and California Democrat Rep. Adam Schiff said in a statement Wednesday that the Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson deemed the complaint "both credible and urgent."

It is unclear which foreign leader Trump was speaking with or what was being discussed, but Katyal said all signs point to significant wrongdoing by the president. "This is going to be huge," he predicted. "DOJ & Admin are contorting themselves backwards to try to hide this."

Read more Former CIA Director Says He Is Concerned About U.S. Reputation

He continued: "Truth will come out. There are probably tapes and transcripts documenting a gross abuse of power by Trump. Gonna be ugly. And enablers should all face consequences."

Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire has declined to provide any further information about the complaint, prompting lawmakers on the House Intelligence Committee to try and force disclosures.

Schiff has not seen the complaint, but wrote a letter to the office of the Director of National Intelligence last week saying he believes the complaint speaks to "serious misconduct" involving Trump and/or other senior administration officials, CNN noted.

The alleged complaint will raise new questions about the president's treatment of the intelligence services and his handling of classified information. On multiple occasions, Trump has shared sensitive information with foreign representatives or the public, potentially undermining ongoing operations and national security.

In May 2017, for example, Trump told Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Ambassador Sergey Kislyak about a planned ISIS operation while meeting the two men in the Oval Office. It was later reported that the information originally came from Israel, and that Trump sharing its details may have compromised Israeli assets in the country's ongoing operations against ISIS.

Other examples include when Trump told Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte that two U.S. nuclear submarines were deployed off the coast of North Korea in 2017, and in 2019 when he shared classified imagery of damage to an Iranian missile site following a failed launch there. Critics said the image could be used by adversaries to identify America's closely-guarded surveillance capabilities.

Atkinson is due to appear before the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday for a closed-door session, The Post explained, where Schiff is expected to try and uncover more details of the whistleblower complaint.

Thicklongdeep on September 19th, 2019 at 12:05 UTC »

I bet he's not tweeted about it the past 12+ hours because he's not even sure which of his fucked up promises the whistle-blower is talking about.

ZRX1200R on September 19th, 2019 at 11:29 UTC »

Every day seems to provide us another dangled carrot of hollow hope. His transgressions are multiple and obvious.

proudsjwfucktard on September 19th, 2019 at 10:32 UTC »

Claim you're draining the swamp, while refilling it with your own sludge.