Department that essentially says the president is above the director. Therefore, the president is not subject to the jurisdiction of the director. Therefore, it doesnt meet the definition of urgent concern. Therefore, the Inspector General is done. The Inspector General cant investigate anymore. Thats the Inspector Generals reading of the public opinion, that he is no longer allowed to investigate this. Is that your reading as well . Not necessarily the president , but the allegation has to relate to the funding and operation ability with the director of National Intelligence. Im trying to get to whether the president is somehow beyond the reach of the law. No, sir. No person in this country is beyond the reach of the law. Thats the way it should be, but im trying to figure out whether thats the way it is as a practical fact. The Inspector General believes that based upon the opinion that
you requested of the department of justice, he is no longer allowed to look into this because it d
therefore, should be investigated, right? again, it is hearsay secondhand information. it should come to this committee for further investigation. thank you. you have the documents. i just wanted to confirm that we re in agreement that you think the committee should investigate it. the whistleblower also says donald trump expresses conviction that the new ukranian government will be able to quickly improve ukraine s image and complete the investigation or corruption cases that have held back cooperation between ukraine and the united states. this is the whistleblower citing the ukranian readout. you would agree that if the ukranian readout, when they re talking about corruption cases, is talking about investigating biden and his son, and that that has held back the failure to do that has held back cooperation between the two countries, that should be investigated, right? that s a security measure? i did not agree that it should be investigated. what i said was i complied wi
country that what they would be treated to by the president of the united states would be the highest form of corruption in this country. that the president of the united states would be, instead of a champion of democracy and human rights and the rule of law, would instead be reinforcing a message with the new ukranian president who was elected to root out corruption. instead the message of that president would be, you can use your justice department. just call bill barr. you can use our justice department to manufacture dirt on an opponent, that that s what democracy is. you can use foreign assistance, military assistance, vital assistance as a lever to get another country to do something unethical. the idea that a fellow democracy, struggling democracy, would hear those messages from the president of the united states, i just want to say to the people of ukraine, we
legislative branch and this committee the whistleblower also says, i am also concerned that these actions pose risk to undermining national security and undermine counterinterference to u.s. elections. you would agree if there is a credible authorization along those lines, we should investigate it? i agree if there was election interference, the complaint is not about election interference. it was about a classified, confidential, diplomatic conversation involving election interference sought by the president. that doesn t take it out of the realm of seeking foreign assistance, it makes it all the more pernicious. wouldn t you agree? as i said, i don t disagree with the igic s assessment that it was a credible matter. the whistleblower further says, namely he, the president, sought to pressure ukranian leader to take action to help the president s 2020 reelection
it s important to understand how this typically works. it s typically the case that when the president has a phone call with a foreign leader, that the transcript of that phone call is packaged up and sent out to other cabinet officials who may have an interest in that discussion. when i was at odni, it was regularly the case the director at the time, dni jim clapper, would get transcripts of those phone calls. what we re being told in this case is there are phone calls that are happening, and not only are those transcripts not distributed, in government you have classified systems that rise above the level of secret systems. in those systems, that s where you put the most sensitive information. what we have in this case is we have these phone calls not being put there because they are of a sensitive national security matter, they re being put there because they re politically embarrassing for the president. that is an abuse of the system. so they re trying to protect the president