By PoliZette Staff | September 27, 2019
As questions swirl about the identity of the so-called whistleblower who reported on President Donald Trump’s July conversation with the Ukraine president — and caused a firestorm that continues at this moment — Fred Fleitz, a former CIA analyst, raised some important questions late this week.
Related: AOC and the Squad Want Trump Out Now
Specifically, Fleitz wonders whether or not this so-called whistleblower acted alone.
He thinks not.
In comments shared Friday morning with LifeZette, Fleitz said, “The way this complaint was written suggested the author had a lot of help. I know from my work on the House Intel Committee staff that many whistleblowers go directly to the [intelligence] oversight committees.”
So “did this whistleblower first meet with House Intel committee members?” Fleitz asked. “It is therefore important that Congress find out where this complaint came from,” he added. “What did House and Senate intel committee Democratic members and staff know about it and when? Did they help orchestrate this complaint?”
Fleitz added that he is “troubled” by the complaint. He’s wondering “how an intelligence officer could file it over something a president said to a foreign leader. How could this be an intelligence matter?”
“I am very familiar with transcripts of presidential phone calls, since I edited and processed dozens of them when I worked for the NSC [National Security Council],” said Fleitz. “I also know a lot about intelligence whistleblowers from my time with the CIA.”
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Fleitz served in 2018 as deputy assistant to the president and to the chief of staff of the National Security Council. He previously held national security jobs with the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Department of State, and the House Intelligence Committee staff.
Today he is CEO of the Center for Security Policy.
Related: Here’s How Much the ‘Whistleblower’ Really Knew About Trump’s Phone Call
As he also wrote in an op-ed published on Thursday in The New York Post, “My suspicions grew this morning when I saw the declassified whistleblowing complaint. It appears to be written by a law professor and includes legal references and detailed footnotes. It also has an unusual legalistic reference on how this complaint should be classified.”
“From my experience, such an extremely polished whistleblowing complaint is unheard of,” Fleitz added. “This document looks as if this leaker had outside help, possibly from congressional members or staff.”
Let’s recap some essential — and in some cases, some new — details.
Here are three:
1.) The “whistleblower,” as has been explained, never heard Trump’s call himself/herself — and is relying only on reports from another person (or several people). So it was hearsay.
That scenario raises far more questions than Democratic members of Congress have been willing to admit — but one that Republicans have reminded them of and will, repeatedly.
It raises questions about who those “reporters” of Trump’s phone call might be, what their political leanings are (one can imagine), and how and under what circumstances they fed information to the “whistleblower.”
2.) The New York Times now has identified the whistleblower as a male CIA officer — with executive editor Dean Baquet explaining that the news outlet reported “limited information” about this individual’s identity so readers could “make their own judgments about whether or not he is credible.”
Federal whistleblowers, however — as Axios noted on Friday morning — are protected by law. “Readers and some in the national intelligence community expressed concern that revealing too much detail in media reports could put the officer’s life and reputation in danger and deter future whistleblowers.”
All of this could reveal the re-opening of a political agenda against Trump. It’s worth pointing that a Democratic lawmaker — Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) — actually said not long ago that if Congress doesn’t impeach the president, “he might be re-elected.”
Related: Julian Castro Laughs When People Suggest ‘Prison’ for Trump
3.) Bryan Dean Wright, a former CIA officer, told “Fox & Friends” on Friday morning, “We have seen this for the past three years. It started with [Jim] Comey and [James] Clapper and [John] Brennan releasing that Steele dossier in January of 2017, pushing that into the public [and] kneecapping the president. It starts there. We now have somebody who the IG himself has said has a political animus [against] the president. This is a CIA analyst, a senior official who we now believe to be the whistleblower,” added Wright.
“We have seen this [before] … Certainly [it’s] a degree of political bias in the intelligence community at the highest levels … We keep seeing this over and over again. And it has got to stop.”
Wright added that if individuals working within the administration or within the intelligence community have bias against the current president — that bias must be acknowledged.
It must be made clear and brought to light.
What’s going on right now, he said, “is a horrific precedent.”
He added that he believes Trump’s release of the transcript of his phone call with the Ukrainian president was the right thing to do.
See these tweets about the latest revelations — and share your thoughts on all of this.
Why did you report this? Stupid. Stop it. We want to protect the whistleblower process. https://t.co/oDm6OXPaly
— John Sipher (@john_sipher) September 26, 2019
The point of the whistleblower statute is to provide a mechanism where government officials can report misconduct without fear of reprisal. Identifying them not only puts them in danger, but chills potential future WBs from coming forward — this is not in the public interest https://t.co/xyDL4VAEFI
— Asha Rangappa (@AshaRangappa_) September 26, 2019
"Much like the Steele Dossier, the whistleblower report allegations are based on third-hand mainstream media sources rather than firsthand information." @RepRatcliffe says the transcript of the @realDonaldTrump -Ukraine call shows nothing illegal done by the President. pic.twitter.com/HS4DhE9JSb
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) September 26, 2019
This piece originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.
Read more at LifeZette.com:
Hillary Clinton Calls President Trump ‘A Corrupt Human Tornado’
Here’s How Much the ‘Whistleblower’ Really Knew About Trump’s Phone Call
Castro, Still a Presidential Candidate, Laughs When People Suggest ‘Prison’ for Trump
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Pelosi Says Russia Could Have Played A Part In Trump’s Ukraine DebacleThe opinions expressed by contributors and/or content partners are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Political Insider.
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THIS is NOT a whistle blower, in ANY sense of the word! He is a RIGHT OUT SPY! A professional, placed there, once again, to spy on the now president of the United States. Can some get me a SEDITION sandwich???
No one wants to say the T word.
Treason is when you try to bring down your OWN GOVERNMENT.
There must be a line between a true whistle blower, and someone who has an eye to bring down a duly elected President.
This all new to America.
Presidents were assassinated in the past by bullets….now the cohorts are using their MAIN STREAM MEDIA bullets.
Did former CIA Director Brennan really ever change? He voted for Gus Hall in 1980, who ran on the US Communist party ticket for president. Brennan said he did. I don’t believe him. If people don’t vote the Democrats out of office, we are headed to a civil war. So in the meantime, buy more weapons and lots of ammo, because we may find we need it.
Please explain how Schiff was tweeting about this issue 2 weeks before the whistleblower complaint was released to Congress? The actual complaint, written like a lawyer would, the footnotes show the tie of a Soros supported organization. Right there in the document. Simple, Schiff committed treason when he read fake content to millions of people for the Congressional record. Parody, yes, you can do many of those in JAIL for the attempted coup you are the spearhead for. LIES have another “legal” name, called FRAUD. The created text represented as fact and a direct attack against a President to overthrow him is TREASON or a COUP. Either way, your a$$ needs to be in jail. I vote for 60 FBI SWAT agents at 5 AM.
The entire “whistleblower” process needs to be fixed. It can’t rely on second- or third-party hearsay, unprovable allegations or guesswork. It can’t be weaponized as an anonymous partisan sniper shooting poison darts from some safe place. It needs verifiable facts, not cheap gossip. Right now it’s playing into the Dems hands, but at some time in the future it might be used against the Dems. I say out this particular “whistleblower” because he’s obviously illegitimate.
The form was changed shortly after the original phone call to allow “hearsay,” rendering the criteria no more stringent than gossip, and just before the alleged whistleblower actually submitted the complaint. The law still does not allow complaints against the executive, only against other intelligence persons, so there should be no legal protection at all for the fake whistleblower.
Who authorized the change to allow hearsay? Did legal sign off on that change, and if so who was that legal counsel? These people need to be identified and investigated for conspiracy, and once that is revealed (which seems self evident) sent to prison for a very long time.
While, even the lefts ex CIA operative,Bakaj, acts has a lawyer for the whistleblower, “A lawyer for the whistleblower, Andrew Bakaj, refused to confirm this information.” Which, I’d almost suspect points to Bakaj has the fake, set in place, mysterious whistleblower, tooting the progressive beast’s horn…”Andrew Bakaj and Mark Zaid are involved in Whistleblower Aid, a nonpartisan legal nonprofit…“Bakaj served as an intelligence officer and criminal investigator with the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Central Intelligence Agency. Bakaj won DoD’s Investigator of the Year award in 2012 for his work on chemical weapons storage. He personally wrote both CIA and DoD agency regulations prohibiting reprisals against whistleblowers. Andrew Bakaj of Compass Rose Legal Group PLLC serves of counsel to Whistleblower Aid.” https://heavy.com/news/2019/09/andrew-p-bakaj/
Considering how many holes there are in this delightful pathetic fallacy designed to ensnare Trump, distract Americans from Biden’s son’s transgressions and Biden or perhaps even a design by the “democratic socialist” wing of the DNC to get Biden off the ticket and continue the smear campaign against President Trump that is failing., conclusion: It’s all made up whether a CIA case officer made it up or a propagandist at DNC Party, Heil! , HQ, it amounts the same thing as the dossier. It might even be Hillary is off her leash and heaven knows no fury is greater than a woman scorned, by the American people, it is possible in the twisted worlof the DNC it is an act or expression of hate, and only in that context is it justified or rationalized..
There are only a hand full of Congress men that have the gonads to stand and show what the Demon Rats are doing. The Rhino re pukes are scared of their own shadows. They all need to be voted out and replaced with honest patriots that want to uphold the constitution.
I don’t believe the canard the Democrats peddle about keeping the whistle blower’s identity secret to protest their life and reputation. All kinds of Democrat legislators, academics and celebrities have been blowing their mouths against the President with zero retaliation and the media raises their reputation to royalty.
So now “Whistle Blower” is synonymous with “S hit Spreader”?
The CIA under John Brennan has graduated from spying on the US Congress, by hacking into all their computers, to inserting a spy into the President’s staff at the White House.
This CIA spy was assigned to spying on the US President during John Brennan’s time under the Obama administration, and after the 2016 Presidential elections, when Donald Trump had won the Presidency.
I guess our law limiting the CIA to spying on foreigners and foreign nations hasn’t really stopped them from spying on the American people, at least under John Brennan.
But as far as we now know there may be other illegal irregularities committed by these liberal “Deep State” Obama political appointees.
If you list all of Obama’s scandals, you’ll discover that under the Obama administration, with the Democrats in the US Congress who helped run it, it has been the most lawless administration and federal government period in US history.
Everyone should be able to see the difference between a real whistle blower charge and a political attack. This is an attack with a made up basis that’s so horrifying the liberals should be removed from office for even voting on it.
Someone also needs to find out when the WB laws were changed to allow heresy. This alone, is unprecedented. Was this change of the rules done just prior to the WB’s report? If so, it was highly orchestrated, as Schiff was holding it since August – perhaps waiting for these rules to pass as valid. Sickening.
Since when do we believe what the NYT reports? I would like to see another credible source, please.
My take is there are no whistleblower,Schitty Sniffy took a month to create that leak,just like the Steel dossier.
Well we know for a fact now that Shiffty Sniff had the so called whistleblower complaint for weeks!!! Since August!! Why did he sit on it until now!!!!???
The first person that must be identified and fired is the person who changed the CIA whistleblower statute to allow someone to submit hearsay evidence as evidence of a crime. The Obama administration weaponized the bureaucracy so they can demonize and take out anyone who disagrees with them. These people must be found and suffer punishment because they are trying to cause a South American type coup here in the US. Call them before a military tribunal to weigh the evidence. This type of crap must stop. It is undermining our country. Vote Republican.
“Federal whistleblowers, however — as Axios noted on Friday morning — are protected by law. “Readers and some in the national intelligence community expressed concern that revealing too much detail in media reports could put the officer’s life and reputation in danger and deter future whistleblowers.”
Yes, they are. But spies are not. And this individual is a sniveling dirtbag of a spy. Other rules apply to him.
First if they think I would believe anything from that rag of a paper , or anyone in Washington they are nuts. Second I find it hard to believe, anyone would know anything about secret conversation,in Washington. Can they say Clinton emails? This is just another Democrat trick to get rid of Pres Trump. Vote these people out ,talk to friends family, everyone you can think of, to turn off the news, get rid of the newspapers and just listen to common sense. Who is fighting the hardest to get rid of someone who has done so much good? The Democrats Who wants us to be strong again. Trump Who wants to protect our borders ,Trump who wants to protect illegal aliens from being turn into cheap labor? Trump, Who is working hard to bring socialist government to our country? The democrats.the answer is clear who is behind this bunch of garbage. The Democrats.
If there isn’t at least a dozen people charged with treason, we have no justice system in America.
All of the Democrats form Pelosi to nadler to aoc to her squad to all Democrats knew about ” the whistleblower ” becouse they not only know who gave them the advice they also gave them the information and the money to try to pull it off.now the ” whistleblower ” refuses to show up to be questioned by the Senate or anyone else🤔🤔🤔🤔makes you think which Congress member it is that is pretending to be the “whistleblowers ” they weren’t there in the white house when President Trump made the phone call but heard it from other people 🤔🤔🤔 not real made up fantasy by the Democrats becouse they know they will lose as long as President Trump is running. Get over yourself and get on with what will stop criminals from coming into this country illegally build the wall.send all illegal immigrants back where they came from
Attn : Democrats we the people are tired of you power hungry bs . We demand that you cease and desist your powermongering communist socialist crap immediately. Let President Trump do his job . You do your job and help this country instead of trying to destroy our constitution and country. We dont want socialism. We refuse to accept sharia law werefuse to give up our guns our rights our freedoms including the freedom of choice and religion to many brave men and women gave thier lives for you will cease and desist immediately or you will regret it . The harder you push for impeachment the harder you make it for any to ever be elected again .you have been warned.your power hungry corruption is being brought to life and you need to stop this pony show. Now you lost 2016 you will lose in 2020 you will have no choice unless you stop now😄😄😄😄
Yep!!! George Soros has five sons ready, willing and able to take over for George when he kicks the bucket!!! Evil spawn!
One of the biggest and most evil in this country is George and Alex Soros and they and The Whole clan should be deported !!!
None of the entities you’ve named can be trusted anymore. Duh!
If you will remember correctly, Hunter Biden was being investigated until his Daddy, VP Joe, had the investigator fired and then blackmailed Ukraine by withholding funding. This all happened before Trump became our President. This was perfectly acceptable when Obama and his Dem administration ran our country. Our justice departments have many corrupt Dems still there and will do whatever they can to destroy Trump. Guliana didn’t have to fix anything, but he is Trump’s attorney which gives him the right to get any information necessary to protect his client. You do remember Hillary and the DNC paid foreigners to lie about Trump and then made sure there lies got to the media? Pelosi, Schumer, Schift, Nadler and the squad love to tell more lies and then get their media lackeys to print it. Use your brain, duh.
Because he has a democratic snitch in the CIA. Duh
Our government is full of spies and traitors; they’re called Democrats. The answer, when the time comes, is the Second Amendment with over 100 million weapons owners and the 25 million veterans in America, of which I’m one of them, having been in combat.
The Ukraine also has the equivalent of a Justice and law enforcement, too. If we have provided support to Ukraine, is it not reasonable to ensure that it doesn’t just wind up in the hands of corrupt swamp creatures there, including and especially American crooks like the Bidens.
Because the FBI and State are corrupt to the core.
The evidence is obvious. President Trump cannot trust the CIA and the high level government bureaucrats. Fire the so and so’s and remove their security clearances.
How about we find out why Trump asked Zelenskyy to investigate an American and turn the results over to Rudy Guiliani?
We have a Justice Department, we have an FBI, we have a State Department.
Why did he need to have the dirt handed over to his “fixer”? duh.
And isn’t that why we have ta 2nd amendment?
We must find out which Dems knew of this whistle blower report and when they knew of it. This explains why Pelosi started the impeachment proceedings prior to the conversation being made public. I am sure we will find out that George Soros’s and the DNC’s money had something to do with it being exposed. Our intelligence community is worse than foreign countries spying on our citizens and President. Our biggest enemies are within our own country.
Sounded like sarcasm, but you are correct. That is their platform. Then after we vote their way in, we’ll need weapons to shoot our way out.
You have just summarized the Democrat platform. Are you daft?
Forfeit your weapons, forfeit your freedom, forfeit your finances, vote Democrat.