This post was updated Wednesday, Sept. 25.
Last week, news broke about a whistleblower complaint involving President Donald Trump and Ukraine. We’ve reviewed some of the claims out there about the complaint to see if they hold water.
Trump’s favorite conspiracy theory: Deep state
On Twitter, Trump shared a Sean Hannity clip where former acting attorney general Matthew Whitaker linked the whistleblower complaint to the deep state. That’s a conspiracy theory that U.S. intelligence agencies have undue influence over the government and are out to get Trump and other conservatives.
This conspiracy theory grew in popularity and entered the mainstream during the special counsel’s investigation into whether or not the Trump campaign had coordinated with Russia during the 2016 election.
No, I didn’t. Yes, I did.
House Democrats are investigating a recent conversation Trump had with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and if Trump and his attorney, Rudy Giuliani, asked Ukraine to help with Trump’s reelection. During an interview with Chris Cuomo on CNN, Giuliani said he didn’t ask Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden. Then Giuliani said “of course” he did. Both statements can’t be true.
Did the whistleblower leak his or her complaint?
On Fox and Friends, Steve Doocy described the complaint as a leak from the intelligence community intended to damage the president.
The whistleblower didn’t leak the complaint, though. He or she filed it with the inspector general for the intelligence community. The same segment from Fox and Friends includes footage of Ari Fleischer, former White House press secretary, pointing out just that.
Is the whistleblower a “partisan”?
Trump described the whistleblower as partisan, but also acknowledged he doesn’t know who it is. If he doesn’t know the whistleblower’s identity, it would be impossible to know if they were partisan or not.
Are whistleblowers in the intelligence community barred from filing complaints about the president?
Fox News commentator Gregg Jarrett and others have argued that the whistleblower complaint is not legitimate because the president is immune from such complaints under the Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection Act. However, the law doesn’t explicitly say that whistleblowers can’t file complaints related to presidents’ actions.
Is the director of national intelligence free to withhold the whistleblower complaint from Congress?
Jarrett and others say the Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection Act doesn’t require the director of national intelligence to give the Ukraine complaint to Congress. That’s not true, according to the law, which requires the the director to submit to Congress complaints that the inspector general deems urgent within seven days of receiving a credible complaint.
Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson determined that the complaint was both credible and urgent, meaning the intelligence director should have passed it along to Congress within seven days of receiving it. However, Joseph Maguire, the acting director of national intelligence, refused to do so.
Contact Big If True editor Mollie Bryant at 405-990-0988 or bryant@bigiftrue.org. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter.
We’re nonpartisan and nonprofit. Support Big If True.