Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard released a trove of declassified documents Monday, revealing the flimsy work, biased evidence and lack of firsthand accounts that the former intelligence community inspector general used to advance the 2019 impeachment of President Trump. Michael Atkinson, the former IC inspector general, did not follow proper procedures, according to Gabbard, before he sent a whistleblower’s complaint about Trump’s infamous July 2019 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to Congress — which formed the basis of congressional Democrats’ first failed Trump impeachment effort.
“Deep state actors within the Intelligence Community concocted a false narrative that was used by Congress to usurp the will of the American people and impeach the duly-elected President of the United States,” Gabbard said in a statement. “Inspector General Atkinson failed to uphold his responsibility to the American people, putting political motivations over the truth,” she continued. “And this, along with the politicization of the whistleblower process by a former CIA employee who was working hand in glove with Democrats in Congress, are egregious examples of the deep state playbook on how to weaponize the Intelligence Community.”
