President Donald Trump's efforts to pressure Ukraine into investigating a top rival in the 2020 U.S. presidential election prompted Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats in the House of Representatives to move ahead with an impeachment inquiry, threatening his presidency. The scandal has also featured an extensive cast of Ukrainian officials. Here are some of the other main American players in the drama. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas
NBC: CIA's top lawyer made 'criminal referral' on complaint about Trump Ukraine call
Experts are raising questions about why the Justice Department did not open an investigation.
WASHINGTON — Weeks before the whistleblower's complaint became public, the CIA's top lawyer made what she considered to be a criminal referral to the Justice Department about the whistleblower's allegations that President Donald Trump abused his office in pressuring the Ukrainian president, U.S. officials familiar with the matter tell NBC News.
The move by the CIA's general counsel, Trump appointee Courtney Simmons Elwood, meant she and other senior officials had concluded a potential crime had been committed, raising more questions about why the Justice Department later declined to open an investigation.
The phone call that Elwood considered to be a criminal referral is in addition to the referral later received as a letter from the Inspector General for the Intelligence Community regarding the whistleblower complaint.
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Update #1: CIA sent criminal referral on whistleblower's complaint to DOJ: NBC (The Hill)
Update #2: Trump-appointed CIA lawyer made ‘criminal referral’ on whistleblower complaint (Washington Examiner)
WNU Editor: This is why I am always skeptical of the media. Huge headline. Anonymous sources. Explosive allegations that the CIA's top lawyer made a criminal referral that the Justice Department choose to not pursue. And then buried in the NBC story is this ....
.... Justice Department officials said they were unclear whether Elwood was making a criminal referral and followed up with her later to seek clarification but she remained vague.
If CIA's general counsel Courtney Simmons Elwood made a criminal referral, she would not be vague when Justice Department officials asked for a clarification. Bottom line. There is no evidence to support the headline.
