12-4-19

Schiff hired colleague of alleged whistleblower day after Ukraine call

Republicans want chairman to testify about his prior knowledge of complaint

The day after the phone call between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff hired a former National Security Council aide who worked with the alleged whistleblower whose complaint touched off the Democrats’ impeachment probe, reports the Washington Examiner.

The Examiner previously reported public records indicated Sean Misko, 37, began working with Schiff’s team in August. The exact hiring date, July 26, became available only this week with the release of the latest congressional quarterly disbursements.

Eric Ciaramella, who worked at the NSC during the Obama and Trump administrations, was first reported to be the whistleblower by investigative reporter Paul Sperry. His identity is an open secret in Washington, Sperry reported, but Schiff has insisted on keeping it under wraps, insisting even he doesn’t know who the person is.

It’s known through the Intelligence Community inspector general, Michael Atkinson, that the whistleblower is a CIA officer who worked on Ukrainian issues with Joe Biden when he was vice president.

Ciaramella was the Ukraine director on the NSC from 2016 until the summer of 2017.

Misko worked in the Obama administration at the State Department for deputy chief of staff Jake Sullivan, who later became Hillary Clinton’s senior foreign policy adviser during her 2016 presidential campaign.

The Examiner, citing a former senior White House official, said the two had a close, “bro-like” relationship at the NSC.

The whistleblower filed an Aug. 12 complaint Atkinson about the July 25 phone conversation between Trump and Zelensky, which is the focus of the impeachment proceedings.

The complaint was filed after a meeting with a House Intelligence Committee aide on Schiff’s staff about the call.

On Sept. 17, Schiff stated he had not spoken to the whistleblower, but after a New York Times report showed otherwise, he was forced to backtrack.

On Oct. 5, it was reported the whistleblower had never informed the inspector general he contacted Schiff’s office before filing the complaint.

Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., wants to call Schiff as a witness to testify about what he knows about the whistleblower before the House Judiciary Committee, which has scheduled its first hearing for Wednesday.

“It’s easy to hide behind a gavel and Intelligence Committee behind closed-door hearings,” he told Fox News Sunday, “but it’s going to be another thing to actually get up and have to answer questions about what his staff knew, how he knew, what he knew about the whistleblower report, his interactions he’s had with Ukraine, the other things that he’s had over time in this process.”

WND

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