Experts are warning that protocols put in place to protect government whistleblowers have been put in serious jeopardy—potentially at the direction of President Trump.
The acting director of national intelligence will not testify before Congress this week or immediately hand over a whistle-blower complaint to lawmakers, escalating a standoff between Capitol Hill and leaders of the intelligence agencies.
The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA), demanded in a cryptic letter on Friday that Joseph Maguire, the acting director of national intelligence, turn over a whistle-blower complaint made to the inspector general for the intelligence agencies.
Schiff asked in his letter whether the underlying conduct involved “the president or those around him.”
But Schiff has said he cannot discuss the content of the complaint, and it is difficult to assess because its nature is not publicly known.
Other lawmakers said they did not know the complaint’s details.
“The committee’s position is clear — the acting D.N.I. can either provide the complaint as required under the law,” Schiff said, “or he will be required to come before the committee to tell the public why he is not following the clear letter of the law, including whether the White House or the attorney general are directing him to do so.”
The complaint involves conduct by someone “outside the intelligence community” and does not involve intelligence activity under the supervision of Maguire, the general counsel for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Jason Klitenic, wrote in a letter on Tuesday to Schiff.
That stance signals a disagreement between the inspector general and the director of national intelligence over who would best investigate the complaint.
The original complaint was submitted on Aug. 12 by a member of the intelligence community, according to officials briefed on the matter.
Schiff said the law required that the complaint and the inspector general’s determination be shared with Congress within seven days.
“No director of national intelligence has ever refused to turn over a whistle-blower complaint,” Schiff said Sunday on CBS News’s “Face the Nation.”
Schiff told CBS that Maguire had told him he was not providing the complaint “because he is being instructed not to, that this involved a higher authority, someone above” the director of national intelligence, a cabinet position.
“Under the statute as written, the Director of National Intelligence doesn’t have the discretion to not act or get a second opinion,” said Margaret Taylor, senior editor of the Lawfare Blog. “He just has to forward it to the intelligence committees.”
As Daniel Drezner, a professor of international affairs at Tufts University, put it on Twitter: “I really want to know what the hell is going on here.”