The man suspected to be the whistleblower who sparked the impeachment of President Donald Trump over a phone call with the president of Ukraine reportedly openly discussed how to “take out” Trump not even two weeks after Trump took office, well before the call took place.
RealClearInvestigations reported Wednesday that sources overheard the CIA analyst and alleged whistleblower discussing how to remove Trump from office with fellow Obama holdover Sean Misko, who reportedly offered “guidance” to the alleged whistleblower during the impeachment process under Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff (CA).
As noted by the outlet, there is “strong evidence” that the man identified in the report is the whistleblower, though he has not been officially named as such.
“Sources told RealClearInvestigations the staffer with whom [the alleged whistleblower] was speaking was Sean Misko. Both were Obama administration holdovers working in the Trump White House on foreign policy and national security issues,” RealClearInvestigations reported Wednesday. “And both expressed anger over Trump’s new ‘America First’ foreign policy, a sea change from President Obama’s approach to international affairs.”
“Just days after he was sworn in they were already talking about trying to get rid of him,” a White House colleague who allegedly overheard the conversation told RealClearInvestigations.
“They weren’t just bent on subverting his agenda,” the source added. “They were plotting to actually have him removed from office.”
Another source said the alleged whistleblower and Misko “didn’t like” Trump’s “policies,” adding, “They had a political vendetta against him from Day One.”
The outlet emphasized that the apparent discussion about Trump’s removal prior to the Ukrainian call “undercuts the narrative that impeachment developed spontaneously out of the ‘patriotism’ of an ‘apolitical civil servant.'”
The two men’s actions were part of a “larger pattern of coordination to build a case for impeachment, involving Democratic leaders as well as anti-Trump figures both inside and outside of government,” RealClearInvestigations said.
The conversation between the two Obama holdovers took place during a staff-wide NSC meeting called by then-National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. “The ‘all hands’ meeting, held about two weeks into the new administration, was attended by hundreds of NSC employees,” the report said.
“They were popping off about how they were going to remove Trump from office. No joke,” an ex-colleague said.
A military staffer detailed: “After Flynn briefed [the staff] about what ‘America first’ foreign policy means, [the alleged whistleblower] turned to Misko and commented, ‘We need to take him out.’ And Misko replied, ‘Yeah, we need to do everything we can to take out the president.’”
“By ‘taking him out,’ they meant removing him from office by any means necessary. They were triggered by Trump’s and Flynn’s vision for the world. This was the first ‘all hands’ [staff meeting] where they got to see Trump’s national security team, and they were huffing and puffing throughout the briefing any time Flynn said something they didn’t like about ‘America First,'” the source continued, adding that the alleged whistleblower told Misko they “can’t let” Trump “enact this foreign policy.”
“It was so shocking that they were so blatant and outspoken about their opinion,” the military staffer said, noting that superiors were quickly notified. “They weren’t shouting it, but they didn’t seem to feel the need to hide it.”