WASHINGTON, Apr 16: US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has asked the Justice Department to investigate two former officials who were key figures in President Donald Trump’s first impeachment investigation.
A spokesperson for Gabbard’s office confirmed that she drafted criminal referrals for a whistleblower and a former intelligence community watchdog, without mentioning any specific alleged crimes, according to CBS News.
Whether or not to pursue a criminal investigation following a referral is up to prosecutors at the Justice Department, she added.
The referrals came after Gabbard came down hard on the former Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson, who handled the 2019 whistleblower complaint earlier this week, releasing a trove of documents linked to Atkinson. She also released a collection of documents related to Atkinson.
The whistleblower, whose identity remains undisclosed, raised an “urgent concern” about Trump’s request that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy investigate former Vice President Joe Biden.
The complaint also questioned how records of a Trump-Zelenskyy call were managed and highlighted the involvement of Trump’s then-personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, in US-Ukraine relations.
“I have received information from multiple US Government officials that the President of the United States is using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election,” the whistleblower was quoted by CBS News as saying.
“This interference includes, among other things, pressuring a foreign country to investigate one of the President’s main domestic political rivals,” the whistleblower wrote.
Gabbard further said that she would forward those documents to the DOJ for a criminal referral, though it remains unclear what criminal wrongdoing was alleged.
(UNI)
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