Former CIA analyst Fred Fleitz told Newsmax TV on Friday that the whistleblower probably "had some help" from House Democrats in drafting the complaint against President Donald Trump and that a committee staffer told him that "we think this was a group project."
"This one looks like it was written by a law professor or by a senior counsel with the CIA or with one of the [House] Intelligence Committee staffs," Fleitz, who also worked at the Defense Intelligence Agency and the State Department, told "Newsmax Now" host John Bachman.
"Clearly, this whistleblower had some help."
Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire released classified copies of the complaint to the House and Senate Intelligence committees on Wednesday, testifying before the House panel the following morning.
The committee made available redacted, unclassified versions of the complaint shortly before Maguire's testimony.
The complaint centered on President Trump's July 25 telephone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on whether he suggested a probe of former Vice President Joe Biden.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi cited the complaint Tuesday in announcing that six committees would investigate Trump for impeachment.
On Friday, three panels — Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Oversight — subpoenaed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and scheduled depositions for five State Department officials over the next two weeks.
Fleitz, also a Newsmax contributor, is president and CEO of the Center for Security Policy. He served the on the House Intelligence staff and as chief of staff and executive secretary of the National Security Council in the Trump administration.
In his NewsmaxTV interview, Fleitz told Bachman that House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., had been making the Trump-Ukraine-Biden allegations "all throughout August."
"At the end of August, he posted a tweet that almost identically reflected this whistleblower complaint," Fleitz said.
"It led me to believe that probably members of this committee — maybe members, maybe the staff — had been working with this whistleblower.
"I made that allegation last night," he continued. "A staff member with the House Intelligence Committee told me: 'We think you're right. We think this was a group project.'
"Then, I met a member of the House Intelligence Committee, who told me exactly the same thing.
"They think the members on the other side of the aisle are working with this whistleblower."
Whoever did, Fleitz said, "violated the president's trust. This stuff is very, very sensitive."
But the complaint is not about intelligence issues, Fleitz told Bachman: "It is a difference with President Trump's foreign policy.
"If you were in the government and you think the president did something unethical in terms of foreign policy decisions, you do have options," he said.
Those include approaching several House committees, the FBI or the Justice Department — not the CIA or director of national intelligence.
"They have no jurisdiction over this."
Regardless of the eventual outcome, however, Fleitz said such private conversations between world leaders should remain confidential.
"Foreign leaders say things in confidence to our president that they don't want to get out," he told Bachman. "We want our head of state to have frank discussions with other heads of state.
"I hope this is the last transcript like this that's released."
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