House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) sent a letter Tuesday to acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell demanding he explain President Trump's recent dismissals of Michael Atkinson and Glenn Fine, the inspectors general of the intelligence community and the Pentagon, respectively. The Washington Post's Greg Sargent says how Grenell responds could be "incredibly telling" about the Trump administration's future plans.
In the letter, Schiff asks Grenell to confirm whether he exercised his "authority" to prohibit Atkinson from doing his job, aside from the fact that he was the official who brought the infamous whistleblower complaint about Trump's Ukraine conduct to Congress, eventually leading to the president's impeachment. Schiff also called on Grenell to commit to stopping any form of retaliation against anyone who makes "protected disclosures of misconduct."
Sargent spoke with Ned Price, a former senior National Security Council official, who said if Grenell doesn't respond to those challenges, it will signal a willingness to allow Trump to proceed with a "campaign of retaliation," which Sargent argues is already underway.
Price added that if things continue down the current path, there could be an effort to expose the whistleblower or an effort against career analysts who concluded Russia interfered in the 2016 election on behalf of Trump. From Price's point of view, this would mean Trump "feels no limits whatsoever." Read more at The Washington Post.