Thread by @moscow_project

The acting Director of National Intelligence will be testifying publicly starting at 9 a.m. Watch it live here: c-span.org/video/?464509-…

.@RepAdamSchiff on yesterday's memo: "Yesterday, we were presented with a record of a call between the president of the United States and the president of Ukraine in which the president sacrificed our national security and our Constitution for his personal and political benefit."

@RepAdamSchiff Nunes calls for a "quiet, sober inquiry, as we do for all whistleblowers."
That would have been possible, had the administration not done everything they could to conceal the complaint from Congress.

@RepAdamSchiff Maguire says the White House invoked executive privilege over the notes of Trump's phone call with Zelensky to keep the whistleblower complaint out of Congress's hands.
Where have we heard that strategy before?

@RepAdamSchiff Maguire confirms it was the DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel that made the call to keep the complaint from Congress.
Bill Barr didn't recuse from the process, even though he's implicated in the complaint's second paragraph. What part did he play in the decision?

@RepAdamSchiff Maguire confirms that the inspector general found the complaint credible, and that the whistleblower's allegations were "urgent and important."

@RepAdamSchiff Maguire's first step after receiving the whistleblower complaint was to take it to the White House, which was the subject of the whistleblower complaint.
As he says, "everything in this matter is totally unprecedented."

@RepAdamSchiff Next, he took it to the Department of Justice—even though Bill Barr was also implicated in the complaint.
He says he was just following procedure—but that didn't stop him from overriding procedure to keep the complaint hidden from Congress.

Devin Nunes—who had to recuse from the Russia investigation for mishandling classified information and released the Nunes memo over repeated objections from the intel community—is currently complaining that this process is playing out too publicly. themoscowproject.org/explainers/the…

.@jahimes rebuts Nunes's "kaleidocope of fantabulistic conspiracy theories:" "It was the decision of Michael Atkinson, an appointee of this president," to come to the House Intelligence Committee and reveal Trump's wrongdoing.

@jahimes Acting DNI Maguire refuses to answer @jahimes as to whether he discussed the whistleblower complaint with the president, citing executive privilege:

@jahimes .@RepTerriSewell describes the "chilling effect" of the efforts to withhold the whistleblower's complaint and the president's attacks.
That "chilling effect" is exactly what the president is hoping for.

@jahimes @RepTerriSewell Maguire confirms that, once security clearance questions are worked out, the whistleblower will be allowed to testify "fully and freely," without "a minder from the White House or elsewhere sitting next to them telling them what they can answer or not answer."

@jahimes @RepTerriSewell The White House and the Department of Justice worked to withhold the whistleblower complaint from Congress despite the clear letter of the law.
That's unprecedented.

@jahimes @RepTerriSewell Maguire refused to say whether he'd talked to Trump about the whistleblower complaint, citing executive privilege.
But he'll "emphatically" deny that Trump asked him to identify the whistleblower.
So ... why couldn't he say no to the first question?

@jahimes @RepTerriSewell .@RepSwalwell lays out the cover-up:
The White House moved quickly to conceal the records of the call.
When the whistleblower filed a complaint about that cover-up, the DNI went to ... the White House, who instructed them to continue covering it up.

@jahimes @RepTerriSewell @RepSwalwell Maguire refuses to acknowledge the plain facts of the matter: The White House has a system for covering up the records of incriminating calls between Trump for foreign leaders.

@jahimes @RepTerriSewell @RepSwalwell Maguire repeatedly tries to avoid confirming that his job includes protecting America's election.
Maybe that's why Trump forced out Dan Coats, one of the few administration officials who would say so unequivocally.

@jahimes @RepTerriSewell @RepSwalwell Maguire finally calls election security a "fundamental priority" of his job.
So why did he decide that the president allegedly conspiring with a foreign leader to undermine democracy wasn't in his jurisdiction?

@jahimes @RepTerriSewell @RepSwalwell .@JoaquinCastrotx makes a key point: The whistleblower complaint lines up almost perfectly with the partial transcript of the call released yesterday—as did much of the public reporting.

@jahimes @RepTerriSewell @RepSwalwell @JoaquinCastrotx Maguire suggests that the question of whether Trump asking a foreign leader to investigate a former Vice President is an intelligence matter is "a hypothetical."
It's not. It's exactly what Trump did.

@jahimes @RepTerriSewell @RepSwalwell @JoaquinCastrotx Accepting help form a foreign government in an election is illegal and wrong.
Pressuring a foreign government for help winning an election is illegal and wrong.
Extorting help from a foreign government in an election is illegal and wrong.
It's also exactly what Trump did.

@jahimes @RepTerriSewell @RepSwalwell @JoaquinCastrotx .@PeterWelch outlines the dilemma Maguire's actions created: He put investigating the complaint in the hands of the subjects of the complaint, who effectively quashed the investigation by deciding there was no action to be taken.

@jahimes @RepTerriSewell @RepSwalwell @JoaquinCastrotx @PeterWelch The facts of the complaint:
-Trump was withholding aid from Zelensky.
-Trump asked Zelensky for an investigation into a political opponent by name.
-He said to work with Barr and Giuliani.
And Maguire gave the White House and Barr veto power over whether Congress would see it.

@jahimes @RepTerriSewell @RepSwalwell @JoaquinCastrotx @PeterWelch Maguire has answered questions about the content of his specific conversations with Trump about the whistleblower complaint.
So why won't he confirm or deny that he had those conversations to begin with?

@jahimes @RepTerriSewell @RepSwalwell @JoaquinCastrotx @PeterWelch .@RepValDemings breaks down Trump and Giuliani's scheme: Trump withheld aid from Ukraine, a country that depends on that aid, to coerce Ukraine to open an illegal and improper investigation to help him in the 2016 election.

@jahimes @RepTerriSewell @RepSwalwell @JoaquinCastrotx @PeterWelch @RepValDemings .@RepAdamSchiff concludes with a powerful message for "our friends in Ukraine:" "What you are seeing in the actions of this president is not democracy. It is the very negation of democracy. THIS is democracy."