The top lawyer in the CIA believed that the conduct described in the whistleblower complaint about Trump’s Ukraine call indicated that a potential crime was committed, according to a new report by NBC News. Courtney Simmons Elwood, the Trump-appointed CIA general counsel, contacted the justice department about the report and “intended the call ... to make a criminal referral about the president’s conduct, acting under rules set forth in a memo governing how intelligence agencies should report allegations of federal crimes”, according to the report. Elwood, the CIA’s general counsel, first learned about the matter because the complainant, a CIA officer, passed his concerns about the president on to her through a colleague. On Aug. 14, she participated in a conference call with the top national security lawyer at the White House and the chief of the Justice Department’s National Security Division. On that call, Elwood and John Eisenberg, the top legal adviser to the White House National Security Council, told the top Justice Department national security lawyer, John Demers, that the allegations merited examination by the DOJ, officials said ... Hello everyone this is Julia Carrie Wong in San Francisco picking up our live coverage of US politics for the rest of your Friday afternoon. Vice president Mike Pence’s office has responded to the request for documents from the impeachment inquiry by saying that “it does not appear to be a serious request”. VP office on House Dem request for info: “it not appear to be a serious request...” pic.twitter.com/n3FT3MWHtv Continue reading... |