But Atkinson was out of line. Maguire initially refused to forward the complaint because the Justice Department had determined that it was outside Atkinson’s jurisdiction. The complaint didn’t involve “intelligence activity” — an important threshold ­requirement, unless we want our spies to treat the policy and political activities of our elected officials as within their purview.

Justice also rapped Atkinson on the knuckles for ignoring “arguable political bias on the part of the complainant in favor of a rival political candidate.”

The complainant had huge political bias problems, in fact. ­Before he sent his complaint to ­Atkinson, the CIA “whistleblower” brought it to a Democratic staff member on the House Intelligence Committee. He refused to meet with Republican members or staff to discuss it, even after it was ­released. Atkinson conceded to House members in early October that the complainant had “a professional tie” to Joe Biden…

Worse, Atkinson refused to ­explain why a form for filing IC whistleblowing complaints was changed to drop a requirement that complainants have firsthand knowledge of alleged wrongdoing. The anti-Trump complaint was based on hearsay.