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So here’s the problem: Trump-appointed ICIG Michael Atkinson is himself an attorney and 15-year DOJ veteran with his own legal staff. His office is fully equipped to analyze the statute & determine whether a complaint satisfies the definition of “urgent concern.”
Now, maybe ODNI has lawyers with a different view. But the statute is pretty clear that the IG is reponsible for making this determination, legally and factually. That is *the whole point* of having an independent IG.
Insofar as the whole function of the IG’s office is to implement that statute, you would expect their lawyers—not ODNI’s or DOJ’s—to be the authorities on its scope. But more importantly, the whole structure becomes a joke if ODNI just gets to substitute their own view.
The rationale for setting up the IG as an independent office is that the agency implicated in a report of potential misconduct shouldn’t be expected to judge which reports have merit. Here ODNI is assuming precisely that authority. In which case why bother with an ICIG?
