Gabbard says intel community watchdog helped ‘manufacture a conspiracy’ in Ukraine impeachment saga

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence said Monday, following memos declassified, then released Sunday by Just the News, that a former U.S. intelligence community inspector general helped “manufacture a conspiracy” that led to the impeachment proceeding against President Donald Trump in 2019.

The office, led by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, also said a “coordinated effort by elements within the Intelligence Community” was aided by now-former intelligence community Inspector General Michael Atkinson when he lent credibility to and covered up the political biases of the author of a whistleblower complaint which sparked the impeachment against Trump during his first term.

The declassified memos written by investigators for Atkinson, who first handled the CIA analyst's complaint, flagged the Ukraine whistleblower, Eric Ciaramella, for having a "potential for bias," elicited an apology from him for misleading the probe about his prior contact with staffers on the Democrat-led House Intelligence Committee, showed he criticized GOP congressmen, recounted that he asked to hide his complaint from Republicans on the intelligence committee, pointed to his close links to then-Vice President Joe Biden’s efforts in Ukraine, and more.

The 2019 also laid out multiple, self-admitted potential biases tied to Ciaramella’s Democratic registration, his work for Biden, his knowledge of corruption-related discussions on Ukraine, his view that he had been pushed out of the Trump NSC because of rightwing bloggers, and more – some of which were never made public until Sunday, and many of which were concealed from House investigators when the intelligence community inspector general appeared before them in October 2019.

“During his preliminary investigation into President Trump’s July 2019 phone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, former IC IG Michael Atkinson did not follow standard IG procedures,” the ODNI said Monday. 

Gabbard’s office said Atkinson “relied upon politicized, manufactured narratives – only conducting interviews with four individuals: the Whistleblower, the Whistleblower’s friend who was a co-author of the January 2017 Russia Hoax Intelligence Community Assessment and close colleague of disgraced former FBI Agent Peter Strzok, and two character references who had zero firsthand knowledge of the July 2019 phone call.”

The self-admitted potential biases that the Ukraine impeachment whistleblower relayed to investigators for the intelligence community watchdog during the first Trump Administration were redacted and concealed from House investigators in 2019, newly-declassified and released transcripts show.

These long-secret transcripts were from a mid-September 2019 unclassified session and an early October 2019 classified session that were held to examine Atkinson’s role in the handling of an alleged whistleblower complaint. The missive was written by an anonymous intelligence officer — identified as Eric Ciaramella — in a saga which ultimately led to the first successful impeachment efforts by House Democrats against Trump in December 2019. Trump was acquitted by the Senate in early 2020.

“Despite a lack of any firsthand evidence, IC IG Atkinson proceeded to take actions to weaponize the Whistleblower process and exceed his statutory jurisdiction by ignoring Department of Justice guidance and relying on only second-hand testimony to ensure the whistleblower complaint was released to Congress, referred to the FBI, and leaked to the propaganda media,” the ODNI wrote Monday.

The spy office contended that “then-House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff and then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi used this false, second-hand narrative to create media intrigue and ultimately spark the basis to impeach President Trump in December of 2019.”

The whistleblower complaint centered on a July 25, 2019 phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.  The Trump-Zelensky call was the day after Robert Mueller’s lackluster congressional testimony on the findings of his special counsel investigation.

During his testimony before the House Intelligence Committee in October 2019, Atkinson left out a raft of details related to Ciaramella’s work with Biden, the whistleblower’s long-term focus on Ukraine, Ciaramella’s travel to Ukraine with Biden, and the whistleblower’s presence at discussions about the alleged corruption of Ukrainian prosecutors — all admitted by Ciaramella to watchdog investigators, all related to the allegations raised by Trump with Zelensky, and all redacted from what was provided to the House Intelligence Committee at the time in 2019. Atkinson redacted other potential biases too.

“Inspector General Atkinson failed to uphold his responsibility to the American people, putting political motivations over the truth,” Gabbard said Monday.