House Republicans Open Investigation into Whistleblower’s Coordination with Democrats

From the moment that the impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump was opened by the House of Representatives, there were questions of just where the motivations for the investigation truly began.

First came the “urgent” whistleblower complaint that accused the President of wrongdoing on a July phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.  Soon, it was discovered that this whistleblower was a White House insider who may or may not have sought counsel with the office of anti-Trump Democratic leader Adam Schiff before submitting his or her documentation to the chain of command.

Now, the Republicans in the House are seeking a thorough answer regarding just how much confluence was occurring in the halls of Congress.

House Intelligence Committee Republicans are investigating the intelligence community inspector general for his handling of the Ukraine whistleblower complaint, including potential inconsistencies in his testimony before the panel as part of the Trump impeachment inquiry, Fox News has learned.

Committee Ranking Member Devin Nunes, R-Calif., first told investigative reporter  Sara Carter earlier this week that the panel has an “active investigation” into Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson.

A source familiar with the committee’s investigation on Tuesday went into further detail, telling Fox News that Republicans are looking at the ICIG’s handling of the whistleblower complaint that sparked the impeachment inquiry into President Trump; the veracity of his testimony about the whistleblower complaint; and the explanations he offered for changes made to the ICIG’s guidance on accepting second-hand information.

The concept of “investigating the investigators” has been common in 2019.

Shortly after the Robert Mueller-led probe into the RussiaGate conspiracy theory concluded, Republicans began to call for an investigation into how and why the FBI was surveilling the 2016 Trump campaign in the first place – an operation that ultimately led to the Mueller report recommending no charges for the President.