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Another Major Part Of The Whistleblower Memo Called Out As False
[RedState] The whistleblower complaint imploded big time yesterday when part of it was specifically called out as false by a senior government official, according to Christina Ruffini, the State Department and Foreign Affairs Reporter for CBS News.

    Christina Ruffini

    @EenaRuffini
    Scoop: Senior Govt Official tells @CBSNews Counselor to the State Department Ulrich Brechbuhl was NOT on the @POTUS call with #Zelensky, as the whistle blower complaint states.

    5,495 2:41 PM - Sep 26, 2019

Another problem in the story also emerged, according to Fox.

    [A]ccording to the whistleblower complaint, by mid-May, U.S. diplomat Kurt Volker sought to “contain the damage” from Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani’s outreach to Ukraine.

    But a July 19 text message conversation from Volker to Giuliani, provided to Fox News on Thursday, showed that Volker had in fact encouraged Giuliani to reach out to Ukraine — even sending Giuliani a message reading, “connecting you here with Andrey Yermak, who is very close to President Zelensky.”

    Additionally, the complaint said Trump “suggested that Mr. Zelensky might want to keep” his current prosecutor general, a claim not supported by the transcript.

But now there’s even more.

The whistleblower complained that there was nothing at all sensitive in the call. So that there was no justification for thereafter secure storage system in the NSC. The argument was that Trump just didn’t want people to hear the conversation.

As it turns out, that’s also wrong, as Undercover Huber notes in a great Twitter thread.

    Undercover Huber
    @JohnWHuber
    Replying to @JohnWHuber
    A “White House official” is quoted by the whistleblower (WB) as objecting to the storage of the MEMCON transcript of @realDonaldTrump call with Zelenskyy in a secure storage system in the NSC. This was wrong (a cover up) because it contained “nothing remotely sensitive”. Nothing!
    View image on Twitter

    1,596 4:08 PM - Sep 26, 2019

    Undercover Huber
    @JohnWHuber
    Replying to @JohnWHuber
    That’s categorically, 100% false. The President’s call with Zelenskyy contained references to both POTUS’s and the Ukrainian President’s opinions on multiple European countries and leaders, especially Germany/France and Merkel/Macron, as well as sanctions policy towards Russia
    View image on Twitter

    1,690 4:08 PM - Sep 26, 2019

    Undercover Huber
    @JohnWHuber
    Replying to @JohnWHuber
    That’s why when originally classified the transcript was set at the SECRET, Original Classification Authority (ORCON), No Foreign Distribution (NOFORN) level
    View image on Twitter

    1,514 4:09 PM - Sep 26, 2019

    Undercover Huber
    @JohnWHuber
    Replying to @JohnWHuber
    That classification was set because the diplomatic view of the United States (and POTUS) towards other countries and leaders can “cause serious damage to national security” if disclosed in an unauthorized way. In this case it could also damage the national security of Ukraine too
    View image on Twitter

    1,518 4:09 PM - Sep 26, 2019

The administration also had another very legitimate reason for wanting to secure the information. Earlier in the administration, there were a lot of leaks they were trying to stop. According to ABC, more things were thus put in secure storage than previously.

So either someone in the chain of unreliable hearsay on the whistleblower memo was mistaken or someone along the way wasn’t telling the truth.
Posted by: trailing wife 2019-09-28
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=551417