Tulsi Gabbard has BAD NEWS for spook whose complaint launched Trump Ukraine-call impeachment

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard released documents on Monday revealing that hearsay and erroneous claims from bad actors served as the basis for President Donald Trump’s impeachment over a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodmyr Zelenskyy in July 2019, months before the 2020 U.S. presidential campaign began in earnest.

At least two of those bad actors now face the possibility of criminal prosecution.

‘Deep state actors within the Intelligence Community concocted a false narrative that was used by Congress to usurp the will of the American people.’

An Obama holdover and CIA analyst credibly identified as Eric Ciaramella filed a complaint in August 2019 alleging Trump was “using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. elections. This interference includes, among other things, pressuring a foreign country — Ukraine — to investigate one of the President’s main domestic political rivals, former Vice President Biden.”

Then-Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson ultimately spun the complaint as credible and rushed it to the congressional intelligence committees despite:

• Conducting only four interviews — one with the so-called whistleblower’s Russia-hoaxer friend and two character references;
• Never once accessing the transcript of the call;
• Knowing that Ciaramella — whose political bias Atkinson testified to never considering — was a registered Democrat who worked closely with Vice President Biden, traveled with Biden to Ukraine, and complained about right-wing bloggers; and
• Knowing that Ciaramella had no firsthand evidence of what was being alleged.

The complaint, likely from Ciaramella and afforded a veneer of legitimacy by Atkinson, led to the House of Representatives passing articles of impeachment against the president in December 2019.