Ukraine Whistleblower ‘Did The Right Thing,’ Per Acting Director Of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire

The acting director of national intelligence, Joseph Maguire, gave his testimony before the House Intelligence Committee today. In the hearing, which was several hours long and streamed live by a number of news outlets, Maguire told committee chairman Adam Schiff that he believes the whistleblower and did the right thing in raising the complaint against Donald Trump and his conversation with recently-elected Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

When asked by Schiff whether he believes the whistleblower is a political hack, Maguire responded that he felt that wasn’t the case.

“As I said before Mr. Chairman, I believe the whistleblower is operating in good faith and has followed the law.”

Schiff went on to point out that the whistleblower couldn’t have been acting in good faith if they were a political hack, asking Maguire if he had any reason to believe the whistleblower had acted in a way that was disloyal to the U.S. Maguire confirmed that he did not feel that was the case.

“I believe the whistleblower followed the steps every step of the way. However the statute was one, in this situation involving the President of the United States — who is not in the intelligence community or matters underneath my supervision — did not meet the criteria for an urgent concern…I think the whistleblower did the right thing.”

Maguire, who retired from the U.S. Navy as a vice admiral after 36 years of service, found himself under close scrutiny from the House Intelligence Committee for how he handled the whistleblower complaint. In spite of the intelligence community inspector general deeming the complaints “credible” and “urgent,” Maguire delivered it to Congress several days later, arguing that it didn’t meet the necessary criteria for it to be shared immediately. Maguire — who has only held the position since the middle of August this year — was accused in a letter written by Schiff of being part of an unlawful cover-up.

One committee member, John Ratcliffe, raised the point that Maguire was required to follow not just an opinion of the law, but adhere to an 11-page document written by ethics lawyers from the Department of Justice (DOJ). The document concluded that Maguire had acted appropriately given the circumstances and was not outside the law in how he handled the complaint.

With the transcript now made public, per The Inquisitr on Wednesday, Democrats are claiming that Trump’s request for the Ukrainian president to look into the Biden family as being a move related to the upcoming presidential election, as Joe Biden is currently the Democrat’s leading candidate.

Republicans however, point out that — with nothing about the election specified in the call — the request was related to the ongoing criminal investigation against the Bidens. Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, worked on the board of directors of Ukrainian gas company where he was earning $50,000 a month — a position he was awarded while his father was vice president under the Obama administration. Joe Biden said in a public interview that he had the Ukrainian government obstruct an investigation into corruption within the gas company, allegedly under threat of withholding some $1 billion in U.S. loans should they fail to comply.