Reuters: 'He's a total disgrace': Trump defends firing U.S. intel watchdog
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Saturday defended his decision to fire the top watchdog of the U.S. Intelligence Community, saying Michael Atkinson did “a terrible job” in handling the whistleblower complaint that triggered an impeachment probe of Trump last year.
“He took a fake report, and he brought it to Congress,” Trump said during a briefing on the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Late on Friday, the White House told Atkinson, the Intelligence Community’s inspector general, that he would be terminated from his position in 30 days.
He was a key figure in the run-up to impeachment, having found credible a complaint from a still-unnamed whistleblower within the administration that Trump abused his office in attempting to solicit Ukraine’s interference in the 2020 U.S. election for his political benefit.
Read more ....
Update #1: Trump defends firing intelligence community watchdog (CNN)
Update #2: Trump defends decision to fire Ukraine watchdog Michael Atkinson, despite bipartisan concerns (USA Today)
WNU Editor: The U.S. intelligence community's focus on undermining President Trump's foreign and national security policy goals has been documented extensively in this blog over the past three years. And even with the US economy on the brink of collapse, coupled with the possibility of tens of thousands of Americans dying in the coming weeks and a global order that is now in ruin, it appears that for some undermining President Trump is still their priority .... 'A searing time for whistleblowers': Ousted intel watchdog wrote letter to Schumer (Politico).
