Page:Impeachment of Donald J. Trump, President of the United States — Report of the Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives.pdf/321

 On August 26, 2019, Inspector General Atkinson wrote to Acting Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Joseph Maguire stating that he found "some indicia of an arguable political bias on the part of the [anonymous whistleblower] in favor of a rival political candidate . . . ." News reports later reported that the "rival political candidate" referenced in Atkinson's letter was a 2020 Democrat presidential candidate with whom that the whistleblower acknowledged having a "professional relationship."

Subsequent news reports explained that the whistleblower is a CIA analyst who had been detailed to the NSC and would have worked closely with Vice President Biden's office. This relationship is significant because President Obama relied upon Vice President Biden to be the Obama Administration's point person for Ukrainian policy. This relationship suggests that aside from any partisan bias in support of Vice President Biden's 2020 presidential campaign, the whistleblower may also have had a bias in favor of Vice President Biden's Ukrainian policies instead of those of President Trump.

3. The anonymous whistleblower secretly communicated with Chairman Schiff or his staff.

According to an admission from Chairman Schiff, the anonymous whistleblower communicated with Chairman Schiff's staff prior to submitting his or her complaint. This early, secret involvement of Chairman Schiff severely prejudices the objectivity of the whistleblower's allegations, given Chairman Schiff's obsession with attacking President Trump for partisan gain.

Since 2016, Chairman Schiff has been a chief ringleader in Congress for asserting that President Trump colluded with Russia, going so far as to allege that he had secret evidence of collusion. Now Chairman Schiff is the investigator-in-chief of President Trump's July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Zelensky. Chairman Schiff led the investigation's first phase from behind the closed doors of his Capitol basement bunker, even though the depositions were all unclassified. Chairman Schiff did so purely for information control—allowing him to leak selected pieces of information to paint a misleading public narrative.

Chairman Schiff has publicly fabricated evidence about President Trump's July 25 phone call and misled the American public about his awareness of the whistleblower allegations. On September 26, at a public hearing of the House Intelligence Committee, Chairman Schiff opened the proceedings by fabricating the contents of President Trump's call with President Zelensky to 92