It is now widely believed that Eric Ciaramella is the vaunted “whistleblower” that Adam Schiff boasted of non-stop. For a long time Schiff has promisd that his WB would testify
Remember when @AdamSchiff said the Whistleblower was going to testify? pic.twitter.com/L5P6AGipKo
— ALX 🇺🇸 (@alx) November 1, 2019
Well, Ciaramella is having second thoughts.
The whistleblower whose complaint launched impeachment proceedings against President Trump is unlikely to testify to Congress, as talks have ceased between his legal team and committee leaders.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, who has overseen depositions in Democrats’ impeachment proceeding, was initially eager for the whistleblower to testify before citing concern about the person being identified.
Republicans accuse Schiff, a California Democrat, of changing course to prevent inquiries into his staff’s dealings with the whistleblower before he filed his Aug. 12 complaint to the Intelligence Community inspector general.
A source familiar with the discussions told the Washington Examiner that talks halted over potential testimony from the whistleblower and there is no discussion of testimony from a second whistleblower, who supported the first’s claims.
“There is no indication that either of the original whistleblowers will be called to testify or appear before the Senate or House Intelligence committees. There is no further discussion ongoing between the legal team and the committees,” the person said.
It just might have something to do with Ciaramella being a CIA spy and not a whistleblower. Once it was learned that he worked for Joe Biden and John Brennan and Glenn Simpson and was conspiring with Adam Schiff the room temperature went way up.
Ciaramella is damned lucky it’s Trump and not obama that he’s conspiring against. obama had a way with whistleblowers.
Jack Balkin, a liberal law professor at Yale, agrees that the increase in leak prosecutions is part of a larger transformation. “We are witnessing the bipartisan normalization and legitimization of a national-surveillance state,” he says. In his view, zealous leak prosecutions are consonant with other political shifts since 9/11: the emergence of a vast new security bureaucracy, in which at least two and a half million people hold confidential, secret, or top-secret clearances; huge expenditures on electronic monitoring, along with a reinterpretation of the law in order to sanction it; and corporate partnerships with the government that have transformed the counterterrorism industry into a powerful lobbying force. Obama, Balkin says, has “systematically adopted policies consistent with the second term of the Bush Administration.”
obama prosecuted more whistleblowers under the Espionage Act than all previous Presidents combined.
Since Barack Obama entered the White House in 2009, his government has waged a war against whistleblowers and official leakers. On his watch, there have been eight prosecutions under the 1917 Espionage Act – more than double those under all previous presidents combined.
The prosecutions are quite selective
And yet other apparent leaks have gone entirely unpunished or have been treated, as in the case of General David Petraeus, as misdemeanors. As Abbe Lowell, lawyer for one of the Espionage Act eight, Stephen Kim, has argued in a letter to the Department of Justice, low-level officials who lack the political connections to fight back have had the book thrown at them, while high-level figures have been allowed to leak with “virtual impunity”.
obama went so far as to spy on reporters and their families.
The Washington Post contrasted the styles of obama and Trump vis-a-vis whistleblowers
“Trump rages about leakers. Obama quietly prosecuted them.”
Republicans want to see Ciaramella testify– publicly. Vladimir Schiff instead is leading the process of impeaching Trump in secret and making it impossible for Republicans to participate or the President to defend himself.
.@SteveScalise: "I equate [this impeachment process] to Soviet style justice because maybe in the Soviet Union they have a one sided, closed door – behind closed door secret impeachment process. This is the United States of America, we deserve better than this." pic.twitter.com/rUYSbr6LTG
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) November 1, 2019
A report in Breitbart suggested that obama softened his position on whistleblowers at the end of his term.
Near the end of his administration, it appeared the former president had a change of heart and showed an interest in protecting government whistleblowers and other official leakers.
He implemented executive-branch directives and signed a bill into law to protect whistleblowers and members of the inspector general community.
100% wrong.
obama changed the rules to allow as much dissemination of information between agencies and as much consequent leaking as possible to undermine Trump.
It is not difficult to see what is going on.
All the “whistleblowers” should testify in public. Impeaching or convicting someone- anyone- in secret is un-American.
Eric Ciaramella is lucky he’s participating in a coup against Trump and not obama. And he’s not a whistleblower. He is a spy.
DrJohn has been a health care professional for more than 30 years. In addition to clinical practice he has done extensive research and has published widely with over 70 original articles and abstracts in the peer-reviewed literature. DrJohn is well known in his field and has lectured on every continent except for Antarctica. He has been married to the same wonderful lady for over 30 years and has three kids- two sons, both of whom are attorneys and one daughter on her way into the field of education.
DrJohn was brought up with the concept that one can do well if one is prepared to work hard but nothing in life is guaranteed.
Except for liberals being foolish.