Trump fires intelligence community inspector general who defied him on Ukraine

He's smiling out the other end now.

 

Yeah good riddance

 

Perhaps your genius ugly tie theory may be challenged, although this senile old **** is a powerless empty shell holding a once prestigious job...

SNIP
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) is preparing a bipartisan letter to send to President Trump over the Friday-night firing of Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson.

“Congress has been crystal clear that written reasons must be given when IGs are removed for a lack of confidence. More details are needed from the administration,” he said in a statement released Saturday, before releasing another Tuesday which said that “the White House should empower inspectors general so they’re able to do their job.”
ENDSNIP

https://www.yahoo.com/news/chuck-grassley-demands-explanation-trump-130353591.html

Oh sure.. requiring a "written reason" from Trump is like requiring a Masters Thesis from a Nursery schooler...

Let's see how far he pushes this? I'm guessing Trump will say "Boo" and Grassley's sack will retract again...

 

Once again a congressperson spouting off about authority that he does not have.

 

There seems to a law in place stating the opposite, most likely signed by a US president.

50 U.S.C. § 3033(c)(4) (stating that, "The [Intelligence Community] Inspector General may be removed from office only by the President. The President shall communicate in writing to the congressional intelligence committees the reasons for the removal not later than 30 days prior to the effective date of such removal").

https://www.grassley.senate.gov/sit...-04-08 CEG et al to POTUS (IC IG removal).pdf

Trump shouldn't get to only apply laws he agrees with..... Nobody should.

Can't wait to watch you people scream when the next D president does the same.

 

How’s he ignored it? He’s got time to write it still

 

It turns out that this does uniquely apply to the IG of the Intelligence Community, so I stand corrected.
Trump has not violated any law -- de minimis at worst.

 

If this was truly "about minimal things", do you really think Grassley would risk incurring the wrath of the Glorious Leader?

From minimal things does maximum damage occur - That's either Confucius or Coach K...

But I certainly won't take the bet the WH will even respond to Chuckie's letter by 4/13, and Chuck can say he's done all he can do (wink wink)

 

"On August 26, 2019, the inspector general for the intelligence community (ICIG) forwarded a complaint from an IC employee or contractor to the DNI concerning a telephone call between President Donald Trump and a foreign leader. The complaint alleged that Trump made comments that could be viewed as soliciting a foreign campaign contribution in violation of campaign finance laws.

After DNI received the complaint, it requested that the Dept. of Justice (DOJ) review the complaint because of the alleged campaign finance violation before forwarding it to congressional committees. DOJ sent the overall whistleblower complaint to the OLC, and referred the potential campaign finance violation to the criminal division for review.

The DOJ found that there wasn’t a criminal campaign finance violation to prosecuted because no “thing of value” was explicitly promised or exchanged as a result of the call. Meanwhile, the OLC explained why it withheld the report in the following portion of its 11-page legal opinion:

“The complaint does not arise in connection with the operation of any U.S. government activity, and the alleged misconduct does not involve any member of the intelligence, and the alleged misconduct does not involve any member of the intelligence community. Rather, the complaint arises out of a confidential diplomatic communication between the President and a foreign leader that the intelligence-community complaint received secondhand. The question is whether such a complaint falls within the statutory definition of “urgent concern” that the law requires the DNI to forward to the intelligence committees. We conclude that it does not. 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” under the authority of the DNI.”"
https://www.countable.us/articles/3...histleblower-complaint-congress-just-received

Atkinson then took it upon himself to go outside and turn it over to Congress. He therefore lost the confidence needed in him to abide by the law and rules applied to carry out the job. He's gone.

 

Right... 6 months later....

None of what you write should satisfy Grassley, if he's remotely serious about protecting IG's.... which he probably isn't....

 

Not meeting the 30-day informative date is indeed de minimis. Trump will not likely show any annoyance, let alone wrath, at Grassley.

 

Ha Ha.... how little attention you've been paying....

The letter only came into the WH yesterday.... somebody (??) has to turn it into simple pictures for presentation to Trump, and that takes time... I expect by Saturday, Old Man Chuck will have his turn in the barrel...

 

The guy wasn't fired 6 months ago.

Moreover, he shouldn't be concerned with "protecting IGs" the law only requires the written statement of the Intel IG.

Not sure why this wouldn't satisify it? Seems quite straight forward and to the point. The IG went around the the law and his jurisdiction.

 

I didn't know there was a specific timeframe and Trump has been kinda tied up with the impeachment and now the COVID. It came to head because Atkinson was being appointed to this watchdog group, that ramped it up the priority list.

 

So your argument is that he was trustworthy in his current assignment of ICIG for 6 extra months after Ukraine, but because he was going to be part of the team monitoring the pandemic slush fund, he had to be removed from his existing job?

Uh huh...

But your main point is well made... Trump certainly doesn't want anybody he doesn't completely control looking at his future fund thefts...

Can you imagine?

 

I was quite clear in what said and what I posted. His removal moved up the totem pole when he was named as one of the several IG's to be on the panel, Trump's had more pressing things to deal with.

 

Just following up ..... the WH missed the deadline for responding to Grassley's letter for some semblance of a bullshit reason for firing Atkinson.

Nostradamus himself could see that coming...

What does Grassley do now??

If he does nothing, it's his full agreement that he has ZERO influence in 2020..... and can safely retire as a toothless tiger...

https://www.yahoo.com/news/white-ho...-intelligence-watchdogs-firing-215052651.html

 

You would love the "Conspiracy theory" section on this forum.

 

My thoughts are that it is great that Trump can multitask. He can not only do a great job managing the pandemic response, but he also has time to fire incompetent and disloyal staff. Four more years Mr. President!

 

Yep!! He can talk smack AND bullshit at the same time... amazing talent there..

What he cannot do is follow the law as written.....

9 more months Mr. President!

 

If you are going to take on trump, you'd better be right.

 

LOL... right is the only other option available....

 

He can whine and complain. What if he and the other Senators find that the firing was “not for reasons unrelated to [his] performance.”? They can whine and complain some more.

BTW, a "bipartisan" letter, signed by Sens. Grassley, Susan Collins, Mitt Romney, Gary Peters, Ron Wyden, Mark Warner, Dianne Feinstein and Jon Tester is not a bipartisan letter just because it has a couple of Trump hating Republicans on it -- though Grassley would not fall into that description.

 

You might want to bone up on what the phrase bi-partisan means...

"involving the agreement or cooperation of two political parties that usually oppose each other's policies"

It certainly doesn't mean what it used to though... I'll give you that...

It's RINO(s) vs PINO... who's going to blink??

 

Hey!!

Grassley!!

Where's your response from the WH?? You gave them a "deadline" of 4/13, so we are at T plus 11 days...

Toothless old goat.... needs to carved up for goat chops (what with the upcoming Trump Meat shortage)...