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https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-49800181
(Note: emphasis in original.)
Why is this important?
Mr Trump's most ardent critics accuse him of using the powers of the presidency to bully Ukraine into digging up damaging information on a political rival, Democrat Joe Biden.
Meanwhile, Mr Trump and his supporters the former vice-president abused his power to pressure Ukraine to back away from a criminal investigation that could implicate his son, Hunter.
Mr Biden is the front-runner for the Democratic nomination to take on Mr Trump next year.
In other words, it is nothing less than the White House at stake.
[...] What happened to the whistleblower's complaint?
After receiving the [whistleblower] complaint, the inspector general informed Joseph Maguire, the acting director of national intelligence, and said the matter was "urgent". The intelligence community whistleblower law says the director has seven days to pass the complaint along to congressional intelligence committees.
That didn't happen.
Instead, Mr Maguire spoke to a lawyer who told him the issue was not "urgent", at least according to legal standards, according to [T]he New York Times.
As a result, Mr Maguire decided that the members of the congressional oversight committees did not need to see it.
On 9 September, the inspector general informed Congress about the complaint's existence, but not the details. Democrats in Congress have since clamoured for more information - including a transcript of Mr Trump's call - but the administration has refused to co-operate.
And that's where things currently stand.
[...] Did Mr Trump commit an impeachable offence?
The constitutional process for handling a president who committed illegal and-or unethical acts is impeachment by a majority of the House of Representatives and conviction and removal by a two-thirds majority of the US Senate.
The US constitution outlines the grounds for impeachment as "treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors". When it comes down to it, an "impeachable offense" is whatever a majority of the House says it is.
Inspector General of the Intelligence Community Letters to Congressional Intelligence Committees
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 24 2019, @01:45PM (6 children)
Nice story, but it doesn't pass the smell test.
If the situation was as clearly against "Lock Her Up" Clinton and Biden, then why won't the President release this information and transcript to the Congressional Intelligence Committees. They are the people's elected representatives for oversight into intelligence matters. It's also quite literally the law to do so. (You know, that thing which Republicans used as justification for why an extra-marital affair to be considered a "high-crime or treason" against President Clinton.)
For that matter, why would a whistleblower sacrifice their career (hopefully not, but we all know what happens to whistleblowers) and consider this an "urgent" issue if it was just exposing the dirty laundry of the Democrats? And why now?
I'd suggest that some critical thinking be applied to this hypothesis. It's hard to say without actually knowing the evidence, but the preponderance of the evidence suggests something is very wrong and the President is stonewalling again. How long until he does another stupid thing just to distract everybody again...
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Tuesday September 24 2019, @04:19PM (4 children)
why won't the President release this information and transcript to the Congressional Intelligence Committees.
*Assassins accusing assassins* Nobody goes down alone. You wanna burn the whole house down?
And a real whistleblower.. would go public. So far this is all shtick. Keep people interested while Brexit is on its little sabbatical.
I know the audience likes to participate like in "Rocky Horror Picture Show*. But let's let it play out. There's lots of time to reduce the reelection rates in congress down to 30% if we want.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by etherscythe on Tuesday September 24 2019, @05:39PM (3 children)
*footnote needed?
"Fake News: anything reported outside of my own personally chosen echo chamber"
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday September 25 2019, @12:39AM (2 children)
You can't be serious! [moviequotedb.com]
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by etherscythe on Wednesday September 25 2019, @12:54PM (1 child)
You closed a quote with an asterisk. I wondered if that was a reference I don't get, or just a typo.
"Fake News: anything reported outside of my own personally chosen echo chamber"
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday September 25 2019, @03:25PM
Whoops! typo... Sorry 'bout that, chief
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 24 2019, @10:52PM