Former CIA officer and National Security Council Chief of Staff Fred Fleitz is suggesting that the whistleblower accusing President Donald Trump of misconduct had help from lawyers and House Democrats in crafting his complaint.
He suggests the document is just too polished and has too much in common with the Democratic impeachment agenda — and a tweet from California Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, who is also chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.
“This document looks as if this leaker had outside help, possibly from congressional members or staff,” Fleitz wrote Thursday in an op-ed piece for the New York Post. (RELATED: Report: Whistleblower Was White House-Seconded CIA Agent)
He also says the whistleblower’s declassified complaint, made public Thursday, “appears to be written by a law professor.”
Fleitz, who is the president of the Center for Security Policy, describes himself as “troubled” by the whistleblower affair. “I am troubled by the complaint and wonder how an intelligence officer could file it over something a president said to a foreign leader. How could this be an intelligence matter?”
“It appears likely to me that this so-called whistleblower was pursuing a political agenda.”
(Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
The former CIA officer notes that he is “very familiar with transcripts of presidential phone calls since I edited and processed dozens of them when I worked for the NSC. I also know a lot about intelligence whistleblowers from my time with the CIA.”
“From my experience, such an extremely polished whistleblowing complaint is unheard of.”
The think tank director insists it’s “more than a coincidence that this complaint surfaced and was directed to the House Intelligence Committee just after Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), an outspoken opponent of Trump, expressed numerous complaints in August 2019 accusing the President of abusing aid to Ukraine to hurt Joe Biden. (RELATED: Rep. Schiff Fabricates What Trump Said In Ukraine Telephone Call Transcript)
U.S. House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff (D-CA) talks to reporters after testimony from Acting Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Joseph Maguire about the handling of the whistleblower complaint on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., Sept. 26, 2019. REUTERS/Leah Millis
Fleitz notes the similarity between the whistleblower’s complaint and an Aug. 28, 2019 tweet from Schiff and writes, “House Republicans need to ask the whistleblower under oath whether he spoke to the press or Congress about his complaint.”
He believes the entire whistleblower affair is part of a larger political plan.
“I refuse to believe that the leaking, timing and presentation of this complaint is coincidence. I don’t think the American people will buy this either,” adding that this latest instance of blatant politicization of intelligence by Trump haters will do long term damage to the relationship between the intelligence community and U.S. presidents for many years to come.”
