Gabbard refers impeachment whistleblower to DOJ for criminal investigation

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on Wednesday referred the 2019 Ukraine impeachment whistleblower against Donald Trump, as well as the former intelligence community inspector general, for criminal investigation by the Justice Department, officials told Just The News. 

The criminal referrals were sent to the Justice Department just four days after Gabbard declassified intelligence that the CIA analyst who filed against Trump that prompted the impeachment had misled the investigators who first received his whistle-blower complaint and that then-inspector general Michael Atkinson kept evidence of the whistleblowers' bias from the impeachment proceedings. 

"ODNI can confirm a criminal referral was sent to DOJ related to one or more former employees of the Intelligence Community and their role in the 2019 impeachment of President Trump," an ODNI spokesperson told Just The News.

Just the News reported Sunday that documents recently showed the intelligence community's chief watchdog had flagged concerns about the CIA analyst who launched the 2019 impeachment proceedings against Trump with Ukraine policy-related allegations, but those concerns were kept classified and never made public during the congressional proceedings.

The concerns included that the accuser had the "potential for bias," had provided false information in his initial complaint and had animus toward conservatives inside Trump's circles, according to documents declassified by Gabbard this week.

Gabbard blasted Atkinson's work Monday, suggesting the former watchdog had "weaponized the whistle-blower process" and used his office to "manufacture a conspiracy that was used as the basis to impeach President Trump."

Others, including former Trump defense lawyers, the FBI and members of Congress, also sharply criticized the withholding of such evidence for six years, with famed law professor Alan Dershowitz going so far as to suggest Trump might have grounds to expunge his 2019 impeachment in the House of Representatives.