Report: FBI Would Like To Question The Whistleblower

The FBI seal is seen outside the headquarters building in Washington, DC on July 5, 2016. - The FBI said Tuesday it will not recommend charges over Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server as secretary of stat... The FBI seal is seen outside the headquarters building in Washington, DC on July 5, 2016. - The FBI said Tuesday it will not recommend charges over Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server as secretary of state, but said she had been "extremely careless" in her handling of top secret data. The decision not to recommend prosecution will come as a huge relief for the presumptive Democratic nominee whose White House campaign has been dogged by the months-long probe. (Photo by YURI GRIPAS / AFP) (Photo credit should read YURI GRIPAS/AFP via Getty Images) MORE LESS
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The FBI would reportedly like to interview the whistleblower whose complaint sparked the impeachment inquiry.

According to a Yahoo News report Wednesday, sources familiar with the matter said that the FBI sought to question the whistleblower after an internal debate within the bureau. The debate focused on how to respond to the issues raised by the complaint’s allegations regarding the now-infamous July call between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, according to Yahoo.

One source told Yahoo News that an FBI agent in the Washington field office in October contacted one of the lawyers representing the whistleblower and asked to question the CIA analyst who spurred the impeachment inquiry.

However, no interview has yet to be scheduled. Yahoo News reported that the intended scope of the interview and whether the whistleblower’s lawyers will agree to the interview is yet to be worked out. Whistleblower lawyer Mark Zaid told Yahoo News that he and his co-counsel Andrew Bakaj have no comment.

Earlier this month, Bakaj sent the White House a cease and desist letter, warning that the President’s constant stream of vitriol is putting his client in “physical danger.”

Read the Yahoo News’ report here.

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Notable Replies

  1. Way, way worse than Watergate!

  2. Yeah, in normal times this would be sensible, as it would be part of the investigation and the FBI would protect the identity of the WB. Now, it’s not clear that anyone in the DoJ can be trusted, not with Barr running things…maybe the FBI wants to do an honest investigation, maybe they are now an arm of Trump’s campaign. It makes it hard to trust anything connected to political investigations they may do.

    It could be a good sign that the FBI is investigating, but only if they are talking to others as well, as there is a lot of information out there that they can use to pursue criminal investigations.

  3. Is Barr in on this?

    The only legitimate reason to question the whistleblower would be to see if a criminal investigation should have been opened previously when info was reported to DOJ. And Barr himself put the kibosh to that.

  4. Which FBI? The one protecting America’s interests or the one providing a free pass to the White House?

  5. I recognize Bill Barr’s foul stench in this request.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

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