He simply “anticipated” it would require “lengthy negotiations,” and therefore didn’t even attempt to review the transcript summaries before making his determination the complaint “appeared credible.” His letter makes no claim that he received any pushback from the White House. His letter continued, “I concluded that it would be highly unlikely for the ICIG to obtain those records within the limited remaining time allowed by statute.” It appears that the IC IG bought into the allegations in the whistleblower’s complaint so completely that he didn’t even afford the president the presumption of innocence and appropriate due process. In the letter, the inspector general of the intelligence community explains that, “As a part of its preliminary review, the ICIG did not request access to records of the President’s July 25, 2019, call with the Ukrainian President.” He continued, “I decided that access to records of the telephone call was not necessary to make my determination that the complaint relating to the urgent concern ‘appears credible.’” However, in a shocking review of the recently declassified letter he transmitted to Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire on August 26, we learn that his investigation didn’t even include a review of the phone transcript at the core of the entire complaint. The Investigation that Never HappenedĪs I noted previously, Atkinson promised during his confirmation hearings to conduct investigations in accordance with the basic quality standards promulgated by Council of the Inspectors General. The outrage is because the ICIG was caught with its hand in the cookie jar trying to protect the optics of a “credibility” determination that continues to draw more scrutiny as more time passes.Ī lack of first-hand knowledge of an allegation should not disqualify it, but it reasonably drives questions about the overall credibility of a complaint. Nobody has seriously argued that the ICIG wouldn’t be allowed (or even obligated) to begin an investigation regardless of the source of an allegation. Notably, multiple press outlets have used that characterization to minimize the issue, some even calling genuine concerns about the apparent subterfuge by the ICIG a “hoax story.” It spent nearly an entire page of the three-page document describing an initiative to update forms that was apparently ongoing in the organization. The release also attempted to leave the impression that the change was routine with its timing unrelated to the Ukraine complaint.
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