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Claire Berlinski
@ClaireBerlinski
, 3 tweets, 1 min read Read on Twitter
This is a Rorschach test of a story. What do people imagine Trump promised?
washingtonpost.com/national-secur…
"It was not immediately clear which foreign leader Trump was speaking with or what he pledged to deliver, but his direct involvement in the matter has not been previously disclosed." What do we imagine "the matter" is?

It's of "urgent concern."
Is Maguire protecting the President? Or might he be protecting the nation?

Tell me your first instinct, and I'll tell you what you think about fifty completely unrelated issues.
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More from @ClaireBerlinski see all

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Claire Berlinski
@ClaireBerlinski
The problem is less that he's not reading his briefing papers and more that so many Americans don't read newspapers at all, so this will sound plausible to many of them, even though it's absurd on the face of it.
Well, actually: It's a big problem that he doesn't read his briefing papers. But we live in a representative democracy; in principle, Americans should be able to delegate "reading the briefing papers" to their elected representatives.
But by this point, they should be fully aware that he either doesn't read them, or behaves as if he doesn't, so they need to pay more attention to these things than ordinarily they would.
Read 3 tweets
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Claire Berlinski
@ClaireBerlinski
Meanwhile: I'm not a Kremlinologist, don't read Russian and don't want to pretend to have special insight, but none is needed to understand two things. 1) Putin tends to go on reckless foreign adventures when his domestic popularity sags. 2) His domestic popularity is sagging.
The way it looks to the Kremlin when this kind of thing happens--because it's true--is that the US is not firmly committed to upholding its defense commitments. This is a recipe for disaster.
And all the more so because it's manifestly clear Americans are in a profoundly isolationist mood. Iran just knocked out 5% of the world's energy supplies, and we said, "Well, screw it." There was firm bipartisan support for saying, "Screw it." This sort of thing gets noticed.
Read 6 tweets
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Claire Berlinski
@ClaireBerlinski
So if Americans are asking, "Why are we providing Ukraine assistance in the first place," this is one reason among many. We promised to.

There are many other reasons, including the principle that Russia shouldn't invade formerly captive nations and kill their citizens.
And that it has developed a habit of doing this.
So for Ukraine, this is literally a matter of life and death, literally a matter of whether they will continue to exist as an independent nation. The last thing they want is to be another issue in the interminable US culture wars. From their perspective: a surreal nightmare.
Read 3 tweets

Related threads

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Karol Cummins
@karolcummins
‼️WHISTLEBLOWER THEORY‼️

Let’s take the Biden ’dirt’ hunt aspect out of the story & set it aside as a horrific diversion for now.

The truth is much worse.

Remember the Cohen, Sater, Flynn, Manafort & Artemenko “Ukrainian Peace Plan” circa Feb 2017?

Putin quid pro quo?
2/19/17
A Back-Channel Plan for Ukraine and Russia, Courtesy of Trump Associates
nytimes.com/2017/02/19/us/…
2/19/17

📌Michael Cohen, presented a sealed envelope to then-National Security Adviser Michael Flynn containing a secret peace plan to resolve the three-year conflict in Ukraine.
amp.theatlantic.com/amp/article/51…
Read 33 tweets
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Karol Cummins
@karolcummins
💣Boom💣

NEW DETAIL: Whistleblower complaint about President Trump involves Ukraine, according to two people familiar with the matter - The Washington Post washingtonpost.com/national-secur…
DEMS are examining whether Trump and his attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani sought to manipulate the Ukrainian government into helping Trump’s reelection campaign.

Lawmakers have demanded a full transcript and a list of participants on the call.
washingtonpost.com/national-secur…
Atkinson made clear that he disagreed with a lawyer for the ODNI, who had contradicted the IG & found that the whistleblower complaint did not meet the statutory definition of an urgent concern because it involved a matter not under the DNI’s jurisdiction.
washingtonpost.com/national-secur…
Read 17 tweets
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Shem Horne
@Shem_Infinite
So the whistleblower complaint is regarding an alleged "promise" that President Trump made to a "foreign leader" on a "phone call" and all I'm wondering is why our intelligence community is monitoring our President's calls with foreign leaders?
Source: washingtonpost.com/national-secur…
Congress doesn't have oversight over foreign policy decisions made by President Trump, and neither does anyone else.
Read 11 tweets
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Tracie
@traciemac_Bmore
BREAKING: Trump’s interaction with foreign leader included a “promise” that was regarded as so troubling that it prompted an official in the US intelligence community to file a formal whistleblower complaint with the IG for the intelligence community 1) washingtonpost.com/national-secur…
It was not immediately clear which foreign leader Trump was speaking with or what he pledged to deliver, but his direct involvement in the matter has not been previously disclosed 2)
It raises new questions about the president’s handling of sensitive information and may further strain his relationship with U.S. spy agencies. One former official said the communication was a phone call. 3)
Read 7 tweets
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Laura Walker 🍸🇺🇸 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
@LauraWalkerKC
Unpacking the Intelligence Community Whistleblower Complaint lawfareblog.com/unpacking-inte… Robert S. Litt, former General Counsel to the ODNI, via @lawfareblog
The original Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989 excluded employees of the intelligence community from its protections against retaliation. To remedy this exclusion, Congress in 1998 passed the Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection Act
This law provides an avenue for intelligence community whistleblowers to raise concerns about activities that may violate law or policy, while ensuring the protection of classified information. law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/50…
Read 34 tweets
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Paula Chertok🗽
@PaulaChertok
😨Ex CIA Bob Baer suggests the “urgent credible threat” in the whistleblower complaint (that DNI won’t give Congress) ”usually” has something to do w/ someone in White House setting up an illegal backchannel to a foreign govt, or some sort of corruption, discovered by CIA or NSA.
🚨>> Whistleblower complaint involves TRUMP’S communications with a foreign leader that included a “promise” regarded so troubling it prompted an official in the US intelligence community to file a formal whistleblower complaint with the inspector general. washingtonpost.com/national-secur…
In the weeks before the “urgent & credible” whistleblower complaint about Trump’s “promise” to a foreign leader, he had interactions with:
1) Russia’s Putin that WH initiated
2) 2 “beautiful” letters from North Korea’s Kim Jong Un
3) Pakistan’s PM
4) Netherlands’ PM
5) Qatar emir
Read 42 tweets

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