President Donald Trump “vented” his frustration with Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson after Atkinson reported a whistleblower’s complaint about Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to Congress, but no moves were made within the White House to fire Atkinson, a senior administration official told Fox News Tuesday.
The official stated that Trump was angry at Atkinson – saying something along the lines of “Can we get rid of him?”. However, he has never seriously considered removing Atkinson from his post as the intelligence community’s top watchdog.
The remark by the White House official came shortly after a New York Times report published Tuesday said that Trump has come up with the idea of firing Atkinson multiple times since the whistleblower’s complaint was made public in September. Some sources in the Times story, however, also suggested that Trump was just “venting” and that Atkinson’s job was never in jeopardy.
The President has strongly criticized Atkinson during the ongoing impeachment inquiry into Trump. The president has publicly accused Atkinson of lacking integrity and of working with Democrats to undermine his presidency.
Trump has also criticized the handling of the complaint and asserted that Atkinson “should have never let it start.”
“Why doesn’t the ICIG do something about this Scam? He should have never let it start, a Dem Hoax!” Trump tweeted Oct. 9.
Atkinson, who previously worked at the Justice Department’s National Security Division, was nominated for his current job by Trump in late 2017, but the nomination was held up amid demands from senators for information from then-Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats about the removal of the leader of a whistleblower protection office.
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