REPORT: Tom Cotton Unloads On Intelligence Community IG Over Testimony

October 9, 2019

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As the most reliable and balanced news aggregation service on the internet, DML News App offers the following information published by DAILYCALLER.COM:

Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton accused Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson of being “evasive” and “obstructive” during a closed-door hearing on Sept. 26 in which he refused to shed light on the potential political bias of a Trump whistleblower.

“Your disappointing testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee on September 26 was evasive to the point of being insolent and obstructive,” Cotton, a Republican member of the Senate Intelligence Community, wrote Wednesday to Atkinson.

The article goes on to state the following:

Atkinson refused to discuss what he meant in an Aug. 26 letter that said the whistleblower had an “indicia of an arguable political bias” in favor of one of President Donald Trump’s rival political candidates, according to Cotton.

Cotton says the existence of bias is “urgently relevant” to deciding whether te whistleblower complaint is valid.

Atkinson reportedly said he was “prohibited from sharing details of the whistleblower’s political bias with the Senate panel,” the Daily Caller reports. Cotton contends that Atkinson shared similar details with the House Intelligence Committee during an interview on Oct. 4.

“I’m dissatisfied, to put it mildly, with your refusal to answer my questions, while more fully briefing the three-ring circus that the House Intelligence Committee has become,” Cotton reportedly told Atkinson.

IC Whistleblower ALERT: October 9, 2019, Statement from Counsel.https://t.co/7wHo8VCqck

— Andrew P. Bakaj (@AndrewBakaj) October 9, 2019

1/WHISTLEBLOWER NEWS ALERT THREAD ON ALLEGED “BIAS”:

In light of the ongoing efforts to mischaracterize whistleblower #1’s alleged “bias” in order to detract from the substance of the complaint, we will attempt to clarify some facts.

— Mark S. Zaid (@MarkSZaidEsq) October 9, 2019

3/Second, our client has spent their entire government career in apolitical, civil servant positions in the Executive Branch.

— Mark S. Zaid (@MarkSZaidEsq) October 9, 2019

5/Fourth, the whistleblower voluntarily provided relevant career information to the IC IG in order to facilitate an assessment of the credibility of the complaint.

— Mark S. Zaid (@MarkSZaidEsq) October 9, 2019

END/Finally, the whistleblower is not the story. To date, virtually every substantive allegation has been confirmed by other sources. For that reason the identity of the whistleblower is irrelevant.

— Mark S. Zaid (@MarkSZaidEsq) October 9, 2019