Intel Chief Subpoenaed by Committee    09/19 06:07

   The acting director of national intelligence has agreed to testify next week 
to the House intelligence committee after balking at the panel's demand to turn 
over a secret whistleblower complaint.

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- The acting director of national intelligence has agreed 
to testify next week to the House intelligence committee after balking at the 
panel's demand to turn over a secret whistleblower complaint.

   Committee Chairman Adam Schiff subpoenaed Joseph Maguire last week, saying 
he was withholding a whistleblower complaint from Congress and questioning 
whether he had been directed to do so by the White House or the attorney 
general. Schiff did not divulge the subject of the complaint, but said the 
committee has been told that the intelligence community's inspector general 
determined it to be credible and a matter of "urgent concern."

   Maguire will testify publicly about the whistleblower complaint on Sept. 26, 
and the committee will also hear from the intelligence community's inspector 
general on Thursday in a closed-door hearing, Schiff announced.

   "The Committee places the highest importance on the protection of 
whistleblowers and their complaints to Congress," Schiff said.

   In a letter Tuesday, the general counsel for the Office of the Director of 
National Intelligence, Jason Klitenic, wrote that the agency is protecting the 
whistleblower and argued the allegation does not meet the definition of "urgent 
concern." He said the complaint "concerned conduct from someone outside the 
intelligence community and did not relate to 'intelligence activity' under the 
DNI's supervision."

   Schiff said last week that Maguire is required to share the complaint with 
Congress and said the attempt to hold it back "raises serious concerns about 
whether White House, Department of Justice or other executive branch officials 
are trying to prevent a legitimate whistleblower complaint from reaching its 
intended recipient, the Congress, in order to cover up serious misconduct."

   He added that he was concerned that administration officials "are engaged in 
an unlawful effort to protect" President Donald Trump.


(KR)