So the whistleblower went to Adam Schiff first, not the designated intelligence authorities? "Remember when intelligence leaker Ed Snowden's gentlest critics said that he should have taken his complaints of intelligence abuses through established internal channels instead of steal thousands of documents of top secret intelligence files and then leak them to the press? That 'mistake' - and I don't think it was one -- is what drove him to seek refuge in the old Soviet Union just a few years ago.
"Remember when the same was said of then-Private Bradley Manning, who leaked troves of military secrets to Wikileaks before being packed off to Leavenworth? He should have gone through channels...
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Now we see that the whistleblower had pre-coordinated a political attack involving Adam Schiff on the sitting president being well before he or she retreated back into the whistleblower status to avoid any accountability or responsibility. President Trump is the one now left to clean up that mess." . . .
From the Federalist: Anti-Trump Whistleblower Colluded With House Democrats Before Filing Complaint
"An anti-Trump whistleblower at the center of ongoing Democratic efforts to impeach President Donald Trump coordinated with Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and his Democratic staff prior to filing his whistleblower complaint, The New York Times reported on Wednesday afternoon. The bombshell report that the whistleblower and his Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) colleagues actively worked exclusively with congressional Democrats before filing the complaint raises serious questions about whether the complainant followed federal laws providing whistleblower protections for employees within the U.S. intelligence community.
“ 'Before going to Congress, the C.I.A. officer had a colleague convey his accusations to the agency’s top lawyer,” The New York Times reported. “Concerned about how that avenue for airing his allegations was unfolding, the officer then approached a House Intelligence Committee aide, alerting him to the accusation against Mr. Trump' ” . . .
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The new revelations that Schiff and his staff coordinated with the anti-Trump complainant and his colleagues prior to a formal whistleblower complaint also suggest Schiff was less than truthful about his interactions with the whistleblower. On August 28, nearly two weeks before the ICIG formally informed Congress of a pending “urgent concern” whistleblower complaint from an intel operative, Schiff tweeted allegations from the complaint without disclosing their source.
“Schiff was in on it and he lied about it,” a congressional G.O.P. staffer told The Federalist. “This impeachment initiative has as much genuineness as a three dollar bill.”