{"id":134146,"date":"2019-10-11T03:30:08","date_gmt":"2019-10-11T03:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bnreport.com\/cotton-gives-intel-ig-oct-11-deadline-to-explain-whistleblowers-political-bias\/"},"modified":"2019-10-11T03:30:08","modified_gmt":"2019-10-11T03:30:08","slug":"cotton-gives-intel-ig-oct-11-deadline-to-explain-whistleblowers-political-bias","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bnreport.com\/en\/cotton-gives-intel-ig-oct-11-deadline-to-explain-whistleblowers-political-bias\/","title":{"rendered":"Cotton Gives Intel IG Oct. 11 Deadline to Explain Whistleblowers Political Bias"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON\u2014Inspector General for the Intelligence Community (ICIG) Michael Atkinson has until the close of business on Oct. 11 to answer a series of questions put to him during a closed hearing of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence about the whistleblower at the center of the House Democrats impeachment drive against President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour disappointing testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee September 26 was evasive to the point of being insolent and obstructive,\u201d Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) told Atkinson in a letter<\/a> made public on Oct. 9.<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite repeated questions, you refused to explain what you meant in your written report by \u201can indicia of an arguable political bias on the part of the complainant on behalf of a rival political candidate,\u201d Cotton wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis information is, of course, unclassified and we were meeting in a closed setting. Yet you moralized about how you were duty-bound not to share even a hint of this political bias with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The anonymous whistleblower filed a complaint<\/a> with Atkinson on Aug. 12 that alleged, based on secondhand accounts, that Trump pressured Ukraine officials in a July 25 telephone call<\/a> to open a corruption investigation of former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden.<\/p>\n

Hunter Biden was paid $50,000 a month by Burisma, a Ukraine natural gas company that was being investigated by a prosecutor in that Eastern European country.<\/p>\n

The vice president gave Ukraine officials six hours<\/a> to fire the prosecutor or lose $1 billion in promised U.S. military loans; the prosecutor was fired. Biden bragged<\/a> about the incident in 2018 during a panel discussion at a Washington think tank.<\/p>\n

Cotton was incensed that Atkinson subsequently disclosed details about the whistleblowers political bias to the House Select Committee on Intelligence that is the focal point of House Democrats campaign to impeach Trump.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut now, I see media reports that you revealed to the House Intelligence Committee not only that the complainant is a registered Democrat but also that he has a professional relationship with a Democratic presidential campaign,\u201d Cotton said in his letter.<\/p>\n

Cotton also described the House panel\u2014which is chaired by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.)\u2014as a \u201cthree-ring circus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cotton repeated his questions, including:<\/p>\n