In a specific interview Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast live Thursday morning on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 am to 8:00 am – with Leahy out of the studio, host Doug Kellett welcomed former FBI agent and best selling author from Amsterdam, New York, Gary Aldrich to the show.
At the beginning of the third hour, Aldrich and The Tennessee Star Report team discussed how the whistleblower did not operate in the norm by going directly to Adam Schiff instead of his congressman. ‘You’re supposed to follow the procedure in the federal government. It’s set up to protect everybody including the whistleblower, stated Aldrich.
Near the end of the conversation, Swain questioned why the nation is focusing so much time on a nothing burger when the country has more pressing issues to contend with.
Kellett: We were talking about whistleblowers. And obviously this whistleblower report and possible impeachment of President Donald Trump. And I think we may have the ultimate guy on that subject. Gary Aldrich on with us here. You may remember the name. Gary back in the ’90s he was an FBI agent and worked in the White House. Kind of blew the lid off the Bill Clinton administration there and what was going on behind the scenes.
He wrote a famous book called Unlimited Access. It was a best selling book. Still one of the best sellers on Amazon. We’re glad to have Gary on the program here. Crom will weigh in Gary on the conversation this morning.
Aldrich: Well, Doug, I’m doing really well. Thank you so much for asking. And I’m glad to have a chance to get back with you and talk about this particular debacle in our federal system to put it that way.
Kellett: I really want to get your thoughts and I’m sure Crom will want to ask a question or two as well. You were the Executive Director of the Patrick Henry Center for Individual Liberty , which was really set up to deal with whistleblowers, right? That was kind of the whole point of that.
Aldrich: The whole point of that. And Doug I want to first say that with respect to the selection of whistleblowers we had a very careful process to determine credibility and facts. And we would discourage anyone from coming forward if their facts were flimsy or very very unreliable or in many ways highly questionable.
And especially if there’s a political bias. These are things we guarded against because we are using donor money to support these folks and in this case, we are using cash fair money to support this whatever this is, the impeachment I guess they’re calling it now.
Kellet: Yeah. In fact, you just mentioned something we were talking about before you came on which was going to be the top of my questions because Crom had pointed this out. The inspector general’s report said that the whistleblower has a political bias or some kind of bias involved in this.
So tell us what you think about the report and we’ll take it from there. The fact that that’s mentioned is that good? Or you would look at that differently because of that bias perhaps?
Aldrich: Well, yeah, I’d look at it differently because of the bias, I would say the inspector general has been selected in a careful process. Trying to get people who’re judiciously objective and non-partisan and is willing to call facts of what side to come down on. There’s a good track record. And it’s a good system they put together.
Having said that the report speaks for itself. He says that things look flimsy or they don’t look good. Or the witness may be bias and all the above. So I would rely first on the inspector general’s opinion. But if I didn’t it would be my burden to find facts that are well beyond what the inspector general had to see.
Kellett: Again you’ve got to look at whatever is said in there. A lot has been said that this is hearsay evidence. How does that fit into the whole whistleblower thing? Because the inspector general or anybody else could then take whatever the whistleblower says and then pursue an investigation right or no?
Aldrich: Yes. They could. This seems where in fact second or third-hand information. We know all about that sort of thing. He didn’t have the first-hand knowledge of the phone call. I’m sure that there is a recording someplace of this phone call. And probably ultimately, the Dems want to get their hands on it. I think both sides will want to hear this recording when it surfaces or allowed to surface.
Kellett: So you think there is a recording of the phone call here? Earlier Crom and I were talking about the fact the President said again several times yesterday there was a word by word transcript. The whistleblower report says there is a word by word transcript. But the transcript that was released may be all we have but I don’t know. It’s not considered to be a word by word transcript.
Aldrich: Well, how the president described it may have been his understanding of what was being done. I don’t know.
Kellett: Yeah, that’s kind of what Crom was saying. He may want to weigh in on this. Crom, you got some thoughts on that perhaps?
Carmicheal: Well we also have Carol Swain here. Based on the interviews that I’ve seen on the media from other people who’ve been involved in previous administrations, these phone calls are not recorded. They were recorded under Nixon and they took all the recording stuff out. (Laughter)
Kellett: And we know what happened there right?
Carmichael: After that, they took all the recording stuff out and there are two stenographers who are trained to take notes, careful notes, and then create a transcript of the call. So I would be surprised if there is and I’m not really saying a recording would show any different than the transcript.
Because the two stenographers who were on this call are the ones who are on other calls between President Trump and other heads of state. And so I think that’s going to end up being much ado about nothing.
(Commercial break)
Kellett: Gary what do you make of this whistleblower? We were talking on the program earlier before you came on was this idea was, does the public have a right to know who the whistleblower is by law. And what about that? It sort of flies in the face of our standard sort of judicial procedures and that kind of thing?
Aldrich: The whistleblower has certain protections if he follows the law and the policy strictly. But, in this case, he did not. Look, I know when I was looking to discourage certain information about the Clinton Administration, I hired a top Washington lawyer and put money out of my own pocket to determine what my rights were and what I needed to do to disclose to the general public what I wanted to disclose. That cost me a lot of money.
But, it also protected me and also protected the institution and the process. Now the book turned out to be a runaway bestseller. It was not designed to trigger impeachment. It was not designed to get anybody indicted. It was just information for the general population. That’s the way the book was structured and that’s the way it was written.
Kellett: Gary you just said the whistleblower didn’t operate as they should according to the laws and the rules and everything here, right?
Aldrich: Right.
Kellett: What comes to mind right away that was done improperly here?
Aldrich: Well apparently he took the allegation and the material over to the House of Representatives to Adam Schiff or his staff. In other words, he jumped the gun. If you wanted to go to Congress you go to your own congressman. In this case, here it was in Virginia, it was Frank Wolf who I went to with security concerns.
But that’s what the law says you can do. And he did not follow the law. He went to some other congressman who’s not his congressman apparently. And that’s not the way you’re supposed to do it. You’re supposed to follow the procedure in the federal government. It’s set up to protect everybody including the whistleblower.
Kellett: Now let’s bring Crom and Carol Swain into the discussion here about this. Carol, first of all, good to talk to you again and nice to have you on the program with us this morning and thank you for being here.
Let’s talk about that because Crom you mentioned this earlier about the Adam Schiff connection. Here’s a guy who’s an expert on the issue of whistleblowing that says that by doing that he doesn’t get that protection that otherwise, he would have.
Carmichael: That’s correct. Gary has a great point. Let me bring Carol in here because we were talking about this in the break and she had a very interesting take on it.
Swain: Well, first of all, I think it’s ludicrous that a CIA agent that we’re being told this narrative that this man is quivering in fear and he’s afraid to come forward. I mean if that’s the case he should never have been in the CIA. And I believe that the Democrats have walked themselves into a trap.
Whether it’s there own self made trap because the whole thing of Nancy Pelosi coming forward before she read the transcript and saying she was going to do an impeachment. A couple of Republicans jumping on board and then the next day we read the transcript it’s a nothing burger.
I don’t know why we’re spending so much time discussing this in the nation when we have so many pressing problems. This whole thing is and will blow up in the face of the Democrats.
Listen to the full third hour:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 am to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
