DOJ weighs full criminal probe after Gabbard sends referral on 2019 Trump impeachment – National News Desk
by KRISTINE FRAZAO | The National News Desk
TOPICS:
WASHINGTON (TNND) — The Department of Justice now faces the question of whether to launch a full criminal investigation after receiving a criminal referral from the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard. The criminal referral from Gabbard stems from a whistleblower complaint into the handling of the 2019 impeachment of President Donald Trump.
In an interview with News Nation on Wednesday, Gabbard said, "This was a partisan political attempt once again to undermine the will of the American people who elected Donald Trump as President of the United States.”
A statement from the ODNI provided the following details:
That first impeachment of two, stemmed from what Trump referred to as the "perfect phone call," a 2019 conversation between him and brand new president of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in which Trump is said to have threatened to withhold military aid if Zelenskyy did not launch an investigation into Hunter Biden's business deals, at a time when his father Joe Biden was running for president. The criminal referral targeted then-Justice Department Inspector General Michael Atkinson and the whistleblower who first revealed the phone call.
“The whistleblower, so-called whistleblower, who came forward, presented no evidence and no firsthand knowledge 400 this is a person who had heard of a conversation President Trump had with Zelenskyy, then went straight to Adam Schiff on the House Intelligence Committee," Gabbard told News Nation.
But the impeachment of Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress was largely based on the actual transcript of the phone call between Trump and Zelensky.
Democrats are warning that the move could have a chilling effect and prevent future whistleblowers from coming forward to report wrongdoing.
In a statement, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said: