Acting DNI Joseph Maguire called the whistleblower complaint and its intricacies “unprecedented,” adding that his own actions “might be” unprecedented as well.
Rep. André Carson (D-IN) asked Maguire if this is the first time a whistleblower complaint has ever been withheld from Congress.
“I believe that it might be,” Maguire responded. “And once again, as I said in my statement, it is in fact, as far as I’m concerned, unprecedented.”
In his opening remarks, he said that a whistleblower complaint that “touched on such complicated and sensitive issues, including executive privilege” is unprecedented.
Maguire discussing “unprecedented” aspects of situation pic.twitter.com/6EJYUJmCFW
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) September 26, 2019
Self-impeachment in real time.
It was unprecedented that I would have actual proof of presidential misconduct in my hands and I just didn’t know what to do. So I asked the president. Totally reasonable.
That is probably true, since it is very rare that presidents have used another nation to help them win an election (looking at you Reagan and Nixon). The DNI had a clear law in front of him however, and it did not say anything about checking with the DoJ before informing Congress. The whistleblower report makes it clear that many in the White House were scrambling to cover up the Ukraine business, not just the phone call but all the other actions going on, and Maguire became part of that cover up when he took action to keep the report from Congress. Maybe he had good intentions on doing so, maybe he was unsure what to do since he was so new in the job, but he still forgot that his duty is to the nation, not Trump, and he failed to fulfill it.
I hope the desperate spinning by Republicans in the hearings doesn’t fool Americans into thinking that this was a nothing burger, it’s a huge deal what happened, and how it was undertaken over several months required a lot of effort besides Trump and Giuliani to keep it quiet.
I wish someone would ask the question if the president commits a crime does all evidence falls under executive privilege?
I believe the answer is no.