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 981 Morrison Dep. Tr. at 245.

982 Id.

983 Vindman Dep. Tr. at 303.

984 Id. at 304.

985 Letter from Michael Atkinson, Inspector General of the Intelligence Community, to Chairman Adam B.Schiff and Ranking Member Devin Nunes, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (Sept. 9, 2019) (online at https://intelligence house.gov/uploadedfiles/20190909_-_ic_ig_letter_to_hpsci_on_whistleblower.pdf).

986 Id.; see also 50 U.S.C. § 3033(k)(5) (setting forth procedures for reporting of complaints or information with respect to an "urgent concern" to Congressional intelligence committees).

987 Maguire Hearing Tr. at 14 ("As a result, we consulted with the White House Counsel's Office, and we were advised that much of the information in the complaint was, in fact, subject to executive privilege, a privilege that I do not have the authority to waive. Because of that, we were unable to immediately share the details of the complaint with this committee but continued to consult with the White House counsels in an effort to do so.").

988 Id. at 15-16 ("Because the allegation on its face did not appear to fall in the statutory framework, my office consulted with the United States Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel. ... After reviewing the complaint and the Inspector General's transmission letter, the Office of Legal Counsel determined that the complaint's allegations do not meet the statutory definition concerning legal urgent concern, and found that I was not legally required to transmit the material to our oversight committee under the Whistleblower Protection Act.").

989 Id. at 22-23. See also CIA's Top Lawyer Made 'Criminal Referral' on Complaint about Trump Ukraine Call, NBC News (Oct. 4, 2019) (online at www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-impeachment-inquiry/cia-s-toplawyer-made-criminal-referral-whistleblower-s-complaint-n1062481) (reporting that the CIA's General Counsel, Courtney Simmons Elwood, informed NSC chief lawyer John Eisenberg about an anonymous whistleblower complaint on August 14, 2019).

990 Maguire Hearing Tr. at 14, 21-22. On September 26, Acting DNI Maguire testified that he and the ODNI General Counsel first consulted with the White House counsel's office before discussing the whistleblower complaint with the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel:

Id. at 21-22.

991 Trump Knew of Whistle-Blower Complaint When He Released Aid to Ukraine, New York Times (Nov. 26, 2019) (online at www nytimes.com/2019/11/26/us/politics/trump-whistle-blower-complaint-ukraine html).

992 Id. The Administration repeatedly referenced privilege concerns in connection with the whistleblower complaint. See, e.g., Letter from Jason Klitenic, General Counsel, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, to Chairman Adam B. Schiff, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (Sept. 13, 2019) (noting that "the complaint involves confidential and potentially privileged communications by persons outside the Intelligence Community") (emphasis added); Letter from Jason Klitenic, General Counsel, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, to Chairman Adam B. Schiff, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (Sept. 17, 2019) (characterizing subpoena to the Acting DNI for documents as demanding "sensitive and potentially privileged"