Welcome to Ukraine-gate, the latest allegation of corruption in President Donald Trump’s administration and a uniquely confusing chapter in the commander in chief’s tense relationship with the men and women of the US intelligence community.
The burgeoning scandal swept into public view 10 days ago with an odd, unexpected Friday night letter from House Intelligence Committee chair Adam Schiff. Addressed to the acting director of national intelligence, Joseph Maguire, the letter discusses an apparent whistle-blower complaint, filed to the intelligence community’s inspector general last month, of what’s known as “urgent concern”—specific legal language that normally triggers congressional involvement. Except the House committee had yet to receive any complaint, and so Schiff’s letter was accompanied by a subpoena for the information Maguire was refusing to share.
“Even though the disclosure was made by an individual within the intelligence community through lawful channels, you have improperly withheld that disclosure on the basis that, in your view, the complaint concerns conduct by someone outside of the intelligence community and because the complaint involves confidential and potentially privileged communications,” Schiff wrote.
Since then, reporting by The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal has filled in some of the details of that whistle-blower complaint, suggesting that it centers at least in ..
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