Michael Atkinson (Inspector General)  Michael Kevin Atkinson (born May 16, 1964) is an American attorney. He worked for the United States Department of Justice for approximately 15 years, before becoming the second Inspector General of the Intelligence Community. He assumed office on May 17, 2018. Atkinson is known for alerting Congress in September 2019 to a whistleblower complaint about President Donald Trump pressuring Ukraine to investigate political rival for the presidency Democrat Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden; the scandal eventually led to Trump's impeachment and acquittal. On April 3, 2020, President Trump dismissed Atkinson, saying he "no longer" had confidence in the Inspector General. A bipartisan group of senators demanded a more thorough explanation from Trump regarding the ousting. Atkinson was born in Oswego, New York, and was raised in Pulaski, New York. He graduated from Pulaski Academy and Central School in 1982 and earned his Bachelor of Arts from Syracuse University in 1986 and his Juris Doctor from Cornell Law School in 1991. After graduating from law school, Atkinson was admitted to the District of Columbia Bar, and joined the law firm of Winston & Strawn, where he worked for 11 years, first as an associate and then as a partner. After the September 11 attacks, Atkinson decided to enter public service, and worked for the U.S. Department of Justice for 15 years. He was a trial attorney in the Justice Department's Criminal Division, Fraud Section, from 2002 through 2006 and Assistant U.S. Attorney in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia from 2006 through 2016. Atkinson then moved to the Justice Department's National Security Division where he advised the Assistant Attorney General. Major cases on which Atkinson worked while in the Justice Department included the prosecution of former U.S. Representative William J. Jefferson on corruption charges (of which Jefferson was convicted) and the campaign finance investigation into D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray (which was closed in 2015 without charges being brought). Atkinson received the Attorney General's Award for Distinguished Service for his work on the Jefferson case. Atkinson became Inspector General of the Intelligence Community (ICIG) in May 2018. He was nominated to the position in November 2017 by President Donald Trump and was confirmed by the United States Senate by voice vote on May 14, 2018. At his confirmation hearings, Atkinson indicated that he would bring order to the troubled ICIG's office, which had a reputation for dysfunction, and pledged to revive a whistleblower program that had become virtually defunct under the previous Acting Inspector General, saying that he would "encourage, operate, and enforce a program for authorized disclosures by whistleblowers within the intelligence community that validates moral courage without compromising national security and without retaliation."