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The alleged Ukraine whistleblower did not disclose on his complaint form that he had met with a congressional committee despite contacting a House Intelligence Committee aide on Adam Schiffs staff before filing the complaint because nothing of "substance" was discussed.

According to documents reviewed by CBS News, the whistleblower contacted the Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson on Oct. 8 to explain the details of his prior meeting with Democratic majority staff of the House Intelligence Committee before the complaint was filed.

In his Aug. 12 complaint, the whistleblower claimed President Trump pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to order an investigation into a corrupt Ukrainian energy company that the son of his potential political opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden, was working for.

The follow-up contact with Atkinson happened three days after it was discovered he had not informed the ICIG of his communications with the Schiff aide before he filed his complaint. His contact with Atkinson happened on the same day news broke that he previously worked with a 2020 Democratic candidate, which was later reported by the Washington Examiner to be former vice president Joe Biden.

Confirming he had contacted the committee, the whistleblower claimed that nothing significant had been discussed and that the committee aide told him to go through official channels, according to the Oct. 18 "Memorandum of Investigative Activity" that was given to House and Senate Intelligence Committee leadership by Atkinson.

The memo described the committee aide telling the alleged whistleblower to: "'Do it right, hire a lawyer, and contact the ICIG.' So that is what the COMPLAINANT did. At the time, COMPLAINANT did not even know what the ICIG was."

According to the memo. the whistleblower believed that "based on getting guidance on a procedural question, and that no substance of the actual disclosure was discussed, COMPLAINANT did not feel, based on the way the form question was worded, that it was necessary to check that box." The whistleblower left the box blank, though it was required for him to provide who else knew about the complaint, on the whistleblower disclosure form.

On Sep. 19, Schiff denied to reporters he knew anything about the whistleblower report. But Republicans were already suspicious this was not the case, the Washington Examiner reported at the time.

By Oct. 2, the New York Times reported Schiffs spokesman Patrick Boland claimed that the California congressman "learned about the outlines" of the whistleblowers complaint prior to the whistleblower submitting it to the ICIG and other officials.

On Oct. 13, Schiff said that he should have been much more clear about the contact his committee had with the whistleblower. I was referring to the fact that when the whistleblower filed the complaint, we had not heard from the whistleblower," he said. "We wanted to bring the whistleblower in at that time, but I should have been much more clear about that.

More recently, on Nov. 13, when pressed by Ohio Republican Rep. Jim Jordan, at the impeachment hearings if he knew who the whistleblower was, Schiff claimed to not know the persons identity who met with his staff and filed the complaint against the president with the ICIG.

I do not know the identity of the whistleblower, and Im determined to make sure that identity is protected, Schiff said.

Career CIA analyst Eric Ciaramella, 33, who now works for the National Intelligence Council under the director of national intelligence, has been named as the Ukraine whistleblower. The whistleblower's attorneys have refused to confirm or deny this, and Ciaramella himself has not responded to questions from the Washington Examiner.

Republicans in the Senate are expected to try to compel Ciaramella to testify before a Senate trial should Trump be impeached by the House of Representatives. They argue that even if Ciaramella is not the whistleblower, he is a material witness because he was Ukraine director at the White House's National Security Council during the end of the Obama administration and the beginning of the Trump administration.

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Ukraine whistleblower insists he discussed nothing of 'substance' with Schiff staff before filing complaint - Washington Examiner