Using intelligence analysis on CNN, Fleitz exposes Schiff’s advance knowledge of whistleblower

CNN’s Chris Cuomo invited Center President Fred Fleitz for a spirited exchange on the so-called intelligence whistleblower who accused President Trump of wrongdoing in a conversation with the president of Ukraine.

Cuomo asked Fleitz for his take on an accusation that Trump improperly used the presidency to ask a foreign leader to dig dirt on his political opponent, former vice president Joseph Biden.

The October 1 segment took place over an electronic CNN banner that told viewers, “Trump allies peddle false claims on whistleblowers.”

His professional career as an intelligence analyst led Fleitz to deduce that the “whistleblower” story might be another political influence operation to damage Trump’s re-election chances.

Clues in the whistleblower complaint, and statements from House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA), led Fleitz to suspect that the complaint was not a career professional’s conscience-driven exposé, but another partisan attack on the president disguised as impartial intelligence.

“I’ve seen a number of whistleblowing complaints from intelligence officers in my time with the CIA and the House Intelligence Committee,” Fleitz said. “When I saw this one I thought it was very unusual, not just that it was extremely well written, but it had legal references and legal footnotes. That was a little bit unusual.”

Schiff’s own previous public statements provided another clue, Fleitz explained to Cuomo and CNN viewers: “I compared that with the fact that Adam Schiff was talking about the subject matter of this complaint throughout the month of August. He posted a tweet at the end of August, almost identically reflected this complaint.”

Fleitz said he first raised questions on Twitter. “Now I know from my time on the House Intelligence Committee, whistleblowers frequently come directly to the committee,” Fleitz told Cuomo. “They’re not supposed to, but it happens all the time. So I put this out on Twitter.”

House Intelligence Committee members and staff agreed with Fleitz’s assessment. “The day that I did, a senior staffer with the House Intelligence Committee, a Republican, told me, ‘We think you’re exactly right, and this was a group project, and my colleagues were involved,'” Fleitz said. “And also that evening, a senior member of the House Intelligence Committee, also a Republican, said, ‘We think you’re right on target, and we want to ask this whistleblower under oath how did you put this together, who did you work on with it, and did you work on this with House Intelligence Committee Democrat lawyers?'”

Cuomo: ‘You don’t know any of that’

“All right, but just to be clear, at this point, you don’t know any of that,” Cuomo said as the “Trump allies peddle false claims on whistleblowers” banner stretched across the CNN screen.

“You’re raising it as questions,” Cuomo said. “But as a guy who worked in the intelligence business, you know that that is meaningless until you can put some meat on the bones. Of course the Republicans are agreeing with you. That’s the whole state of play right now. Anything you say that’s negative about this guy, or about this woman, they’re going to pick up on.”

Fleitz refused to be baited. “Oh, you can say that, Chris, but I’m an analyst. Analysts draw conclusions. I looked at the evidence -”

“But what’s the proof?” interjected Cuomo. “Legalese and the writing? The Schiff tweet doesn’t -”

Fleitz explained how he carefully made his assessment: “I said it wasn’t just the legalese. It was my experience. It was what Schiff said in August.  It was my discussions with members and staff of this committee. I might be wrong, but I gave my opinion based on my experience.”

Cuomo demanded proof: “I would want to hear facts about the case.”

Fleitz agreed, making his case for a full investigation. “The House Intelligence Committee Republicans want to put this whistle blower under oath,” he said, showing why it’s important to establish the facts.

“It’s important to know,” he said, “is this a legitimate whistle blower? Was he working with others? Because some of the things in the complaint are judgments: Whether there was a cover up. Whether this was an effort to affect the 2020 election. Whether there was a quid pro quo. Now, if this came from a legitimate whistle blower, these assertions have, these assertions are more valid. But if they’re based from a partisan who is working with Democrat attorneys on the House Intelligence Committee, it’s harder to take them seriously.”

Cuomo: ‘You’re absolutely right’

The CNN host nodded, seemingly in agreement. “You’re absolutely right,” Cuomo told Fleitz. “You just don’t know any of that. And the inspector general assessed the person’s credibility. He found them credible. And he found this to be of urgent concern. Very serious. So does the IG [inspector general] just not know what they’re doing?”

“Well, this was his opinion,” said Fleitz. “I came to a different opinion. Republican members and staff of the House intelligence committee, they share my opinion.”

“Right,” said Cuomo, “but who do you think had more information about who this whistleblower is, and what backed up their complaint: You? A staffer of the Republican variety? Or the IG?”

Fleitz repeated his point that there’s a lot to be learned. “The IG is fairly new,” he said. “I’m not saying he’s right or wrong, I’m saying based on my experience, looking with this complaint, which is very strange, and other people I know who have looked at whistleblowing complaints, they had said the same thing: Let’s investigate. Let’s put the whistleblower in front of members of this committee. Let’s find out.”

Cuomo didn’t seem to like that. “You have no problem doing that to a whistleblower,” he replied, as if cross-examining a professional intelligence officer for whistleblowing, in this case at least, might not be such a good thing after all.