States would result in an extraordinary threat to National Security and Foreign Policy. So, the Inspector General is saying, heres why you have to investigate this thoroughly, is because this potentially affects National Security and Foreign Policy. Also goes on to state that he wants this to be further investigated. We now know as of yesterdays reporting that he not only referred it to the Justice Department for a possible criminal investigation of the president of the United States, he also referred it to the fbi director. So the tension within the government, the Inspector General saying get this done, get this investigated, the Justice Department looking at it and saying, no, there is a direct conflict between those two points of view, george. That is likely to come up in this hearing. Were looking at the hearing where admiral joseph maguire, the retired general, now acting director of National Intelligence expected to testify on why he withheld it from congress and why he believes
Hello, yes indeed. Also. You will be talking about how people are reacting here in stoke on trent to the tumultuous events of the last few days concerning brexit and the vitriol that has been expressed by both sides. I shall talk to you shortly. Also this afternoon President Trumps top intelligence official faces congress over a whistleblower complaint that sparked an impeachment inquiry. Coming up on afternoon live, all the sport with holly hamilton. 242 with 2a2 with england at the world cup and a conference victory over the United States put them top of the group. All reaction to 30 pm. At 2 30pm. Thanks, holly. Stav danaos has all the weather. Into the weekend, we could be looking at a potent area of low pressure, heavy rain on saturday night into sunday with also some strong winds as well, all the details a bit later on. Thanks, stav. Also coming up the duke and duchess of cambridge are to name the uks new Polar Research ship. No, not Boaty Mcboatface, but the sir david attenborou
House in their back and forth exchanges with the acting director of National Intelligence. Nancy, what, if anything, do we know about the author of this report . Theres no name on this document. Reporter correct. We know very little aside from the fact that this is someone who is in the Intelligence Community, and apparently had been detailed to the National Security council at the white house, and in that capacity had a lot of interaction with white house officials. We also know that this whistleblowers ha s havvery mu to come to capitol hill and be interviewed by lawmakers. Youll hear from a number of democrats from the National Director of intelligence are you going to let this whistleblower come and talk to us and speak expansively to us. The Inspector General of the Intelligence Community did determine that this whistleblower had a potential political bias. Perhaps didnt want President Trump to be reelected. You will hear republicans talk about that today. However, the icig also n
Committee will come to order. Without objection, the chair reserves the right to recess the hearing at any time. The president ial oath of office requires the president of the United States to do two things, faithfully execute his or her office and protect and defend the constitution. That oath cannot be honored if the president does not first defend the country. If our National Security is jeopardized, if our country is left undefended, the necessity to faithfully execute the office becomes moot. Where there is no country, there is no office to execute. And so the duty to defend the nation is foundational to the president s responsibilities. But the second responsibility to defend the constitution, what does that really mean . The founders were not speaking, of course, of a piece of parchment, they were speaking of the president to defend our system of checks and balances that the constitution enshrines, to defend the rule of law, a principle on which the idea of america was born that
Effort over two weeks. If you we were first told about it a week and a half ago and we were told very specifically that the whistleblower did not want to get any of this information out, they didnt want to leak out. So there were only a few potential groups of people that woulhave known about this complaint. You and your people within your office. Yes, sir. The people within the Inspector Generals office. And the whistleblower and whoever that whistleblower gave this information to. So what im trying to ascertain is, how would it run in all the Mainstream Media outlets . Even though they got a lot of it wrong, but they had the basics of it that it involved the president of the United States talking to a foreign leader. So did anybody you or anybody in your office leak this to the Washington Post or nbc news . Ranking member, i lead the Intelligence Community. We know how to keep a secret. As far as how that got into the press, i really do into the kno. But as you said, it has been repo