'Whistleblower' a Democrat operative

Debra Heine:

The anti-Trump “whistleblower,” whose complaint against President Trump spurred the Democrats’ impeachment inquisition, is a 33-year-old registered Democrat who worked under Vice President Joe Biden and former CIA Director John Brennan, RealClearInvestigation’s Paul Sperry reported Wednesday afternoon.

Eric Ciaramella, the anti-Trump operative, also worked with Alexandra Chalupa, a Democratic National Committee opposition researcher who led the effort to link the Trump campaign to Russia during the 2016 election.

Chalupa, a Ukrainian-American, “met with top officials in the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington in an effort to expose ties between Trump, top campaign aide Paul Manafort and Russia,” according to Politico. The DNC paid Chalupa $412,000 from 2004 to June 2016.

The DNC operative also reportedly partnered with a notorious convicted domestic terrorist-turned-activist known as the “Speedway Bomber” to dig up dirt on Trump.

Chalupa in 2016 said she “felt there was a Russia connection” and shared her findings with both the DNC and Hillary Clinton’s campaign, Politico reported.

A former co-worker told Sperry that Ciaramella had a working relationship with Chalupa in the White House.

“He knows her. He had her in the White House,” the co-worker told Sperry.

A CIA officer specializing in Russia and Ukraine, Ciaramella was detailed over to the National Security Council from the agency in the summer of 2015, working under Susan Rice, President Obama’s national security adviser. He also worked closely with the former vice president.

Federal records show that Biden’s office invited Ciaramella to an October 2016 state luncheon the vice president hosted for Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi. Other guests included Brennan, as well as then-FBI Director James Comey and then-National Intelligence Director James Clapper.

Several U.S. officials told RealClearInvestigations that the invitation that was extended to Ciaramella, a relatively low-level GS-13 federal employee, was unusual and signaled he was politically connected inside the Obama White House.

Former White House officials said Ciaramella worked on Ukrainian policy issues for Biden in 2015 and 2016, when the vice president was President Obama’s “point man” for Ukraine. A Yale graduate, Ciaramella is said to speak Russian and Ukrainian, as well as Arabic. He had been assigned to the NSC by Brennan.

He was held over into the Trump administration, and headed the Ukraine desk at the NSC, eventually transitioning into the West Wing, until June 2017.

“He was moved over to the front office” to temporarily fill a vacancy, said a former senior White House official, where he “saw everything, read everything.”

Ciaramella left his White house National Security Council post in mid-2017 amid concerns about negative leaks to the media, and has since returned to CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.
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There is much more.

It looks like Schiff has been trying to hide the partisan hackery and asperations of the guy.  He is unlikely to fair well under cross-examination by Republicans and that is another reason to keep him out of the picture  if possible.