The Trump administration has issued its daily FUCK YOU to Congress, just as it has done every one of the 970 days since January 20, 2017. Acting Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Joseph Maguire informed the House Intelligence Committee that he intends neither to follow the law nor to produce documents or appear in response to a congressional subpoena. Which is pretty goddamn ballsy, since he's the one personally risking a contempt of Congress charge.

Here's our coverage from Monday, but in a nutshell, the law says that intelligence community whistleblowers can report a "serious or flagrant problem, abuse, violation of law or Executive order, or deficiency relating to the funding, administration, or operation of an intelligence activity within the responsibility and authority of the Director of National Intelligence involving classified information" to the Intelligence Community Inspector General (ICIG), who then has 14 days to evaluate their complaints. If the ICIG finds a complaint to be both "credible" and "urgent," he forwards it to the DNI, who "shall, within 7 calendar days of such receipt, forward such transmittal to the congressional intelligence committees, together with any comments the Director considers appropriate."

And yet, despite the clear, mandatory "shall" in this statute, the DNI did fuck all to comply with the law when confronted with damning information about a "higher authority" within the Executive Branch. The DNI is a cabinet official, so we're going to guess that a "higher authority" means someone in the White House pretty close to the president. Gambling at Rick's, et cetera.