By Gregg Jarrett
Published 23 hours ago
The latest media mass hysteria over a whistleblower’s complaint that,
according to FoxNews.com “reportedly involved allegations President
Trump made a troubling and unspecified ‘promise’ to a foreign leader,”
is based on precious little information. That has not stopped
journalists from convicting Trump in the court of public opinion and
predicting his imminent demise.
Who exactly is this unidentified “whistleblower”? What is the specific
nature of his or her “urgent concern” complaint against the president?
Does this complaint really qualify under the Intelligence Community
Whistleblower Protection Act (ICWPA)? These are just a few of the most
fundamental questions that remain largely unknown.
Despite the paucity of facts, some reasonable observations and
conclusions can be drawn.
It appears that an American spy in one of our intelligence agencies
may have been spying on our own president. The complaint suggests
that this intel agent was listening in on Trump’s conversation with
a foreign leader. Was this person officially asked to listen to
the conversation or was he or she secretly listening in? We don’t
know. This agent, who is an unelected and inferior federal employee
in the government hierarchy, apparently believes that it is his/her
job to second-guess the motivation behind the words of the elected
president, who is the most superior officer in the U.S. government.
Article II of the Constitution gives the president sweeping power
to conduct foreign affairs, negotiate with leaders of other
nations, make demands or offer promises. The Constitution does not
grant the power of review, approval or disapproval to spies or
other unelected officials in the executive branch. The ICWPA law
defines the parameters of an “urgent concern” complaint as an abuse
or violation of law “relating to the funding, administration, or
operations of an intelligence activity involving classified
information, but does not include differences of opinions
concerning public policy matters.” The president’s conversation
with a foreign leader does not seem to fall under this
whistleblower definition. It appears the acting Director of
National Intelligence (DNI) agrees with this assessment. His
agency’s general counsel wrote a letter stating the complaint did
not meet the ICWPA definition because it involved conduct “from
someone outside the intel community and did not relate to
intelligence activity,” according to a report by Fox News. This is
why the DNI refused to forward the complaint to congress.
To put this in plain language, a spy who allegedly spied on the
president does not have a legitimate whistleblower complaint against
that president under the law. The ICWPA is a mechanism to report
alleged misconduct by members within the intelligence community, of
which the president is not. Yes, the alphabet soup of intel agencies
ultimately report to the president, but that does not make Trump a
member of that community and subject to its rules of conduct.
So, it turns out that the “whistleblower” may not be a whistleblower at
all. But you will not hear that from the mainstream media. They are too
busy lighting their own hair on fire.
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/gregg-jarrett-trump-whistleblower