Intel IG now claims whistleblower had 'firsthand' knowledge

Responding to President Trump's charge that the whistleblower complaint form had been altered to allow hearsay information, the inspector general for the intelligence community said in a statement late Monday that the whistleblower whose complaint ignited an impeachment inquiry claimed to have firsthand knowledge of misconduct by the president.

But that claim appears to conflict with documents sent to Congress and the director of national intelligence, Fox News reported.

The declassified whistleblower complaint sent to Congress last week stated: "I was not a direct witness to most of the events described. However, I found my colleagues' accounts of these events to be credible because, in almost all cases, multiple officials recounted fact patterns that were consistent with one another."

The inspector general, Michael Atkinson, said the statement Monday was posted in response to questions raised in the media and by congressional Republicans.

The IG said the whistleblower stated on an initial form Aug. 12 "that he or she possessed both first-hand and other information."

However, Atkinson said in an Aug. 26 letter to the director of national intelligence that "the Complainant’s letter acknowledges that the Complainant was not a direct witness to the President’s telephone call."

"Other information obtained during the ICIG’s preliminary review, however, supports the Complainant’s allegation that, among other things, during the call the President ‘sought to pressure the Ukrainian leader,'" he wrote.

The declassified complaint does leave open the possibility of the whistleblower having some firsthand knowledge, saying he or she was not a direct witness to "most" events, Fox News said.

But the ICIG statement Monday suggests the purported direct knowledge was a key part of the initial filing.

That suggestion also conflicts with acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire's testimony to Congress describing the claims as "hearsay."

Meanwhile, the Federalist reported Monday that the intelligence community's whistleblower form recently dropped the requirement that such complaints include firsthand information in order to be sent to Congress.

However, Atkinson said the whistleblower had filled out the older version of the form, which required first-hand information.

He explained that at the time of the hiring of a new director for the Center for Protected Disclosures in June, reporting forms "with respect to an urgent concern to the congressional intelligence committees" were reviewed.

"In the process of reviewing and clarifying those forms, and in response to recent press inquiries regarding the instant whistleblower complaint, the ICIG understood that certain language in those forms and, more specifically, the informational materials accompanying the forms, could be read – incorrectly – as suggesting that whistleblowers must possess first-hand information in order to file an urgent concern complaint with the congressional intelligence committees," he wrote.

Atkinson said: "Consistent with the law, the new forms do not require whistleblowers to possess first-hand information in order to file a complaint or information with respect to an urgent concern."

However, the Federalist points out, federal regulations do state that the ICIG must possess reliable, first-hand information in order to find the whistleblower credible.