Geraldo Rivera has slammed the whistleblower who helped expose Donald Trump’s call with Ukraine’s president, for being a ‘rotten snitch’.
The Fox News correspondent made the comments during his appearance on Fox & Friends on Friday morning.
‘So it’s going to be the president of the United States in a conversation that was intercepted by rotten snitch. I’d love to whap him,’ Rivera said of the whistleblower.
‘This poor president. His whole tenure in office has been marked by snitches and rats and backstabbers. It’s amazing how he functions at all,’ the conservative pundit added.
The whistleblower Rivera was referring too filed a complaint that helped kick start an impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump.
Geraldo Rivera (pictured) has slammed the intelligence whistleblower, who helped expose Donald Trump ‘s call with Ukraine ‘s president, for being a ‘rotten snitch’
On Monday, it was reported that since making the complaint, the whistleblower fears for his life.
Andrew Bakaj, the lead attorney for the whistleblower, said he has ‘serious concerns for our client’s personal safety’ after Trump compared the act of exposing him to ‘treason’ and suggested using the death penalty.
He also revealed the existence of a $50,000 ‘bounty’ that has been offered for ‘any information’ about the whistleblower, who is known to be a CIA agent who at one time worked at the White House.
The whistleblower Rivera was referring too filed a complaint that helped kick start an impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump
In a letter to Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire, Bakaj suggests that the whistleblower has received some form of security assistance from federal authorities, and thanks the director for ‘ensuring their safety’.
The existence of the call prompted Democrats to launch an impeachment inquiry into Trump, with House committees due to depose State Department officials linked to Trump’s dealings with Ukraine this week.
He wrote: ‘The purpose of this letter is to formally notify you of serious concerns we have regarding our client’s personal safety.
‘We appreciate your office’s support thus far to activate appropriate resources to ensure their safety.
‘The events of the past week have heightened our concerns that our client’s identity will be disclosed publicly and that, as a result, our client will be put in harm’s way. On September 26, 2019, the President of the United States said the following:
“I want to know whose the person that gave the Whistleblower the information, because that’s close to a spy. You know what we used to do in the old days when we were smart? Right? With spies and treason, right? We used to handle them a little differently than we do now.”
‘The fact that the President’s statement was directed to “the person that gave the Whistleblower the information” does nothing to assuage our concerns for our client’s safety.
On Monday, it was reported that since making the complaint, the whistleblower fears for his life. In a letter (above) addressed to Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire, the legal team also revealed the existence of a $50K bounty for ‘information’ on their client
‘Unfortunately, we expect this situation to worsen, and to become even more dangerous for our client and any other whistleblowers, as Congress seeks to investigate this matter.’
The House Intelligence Committee has said it will be ready to hear from the whistleblower ‘very soon’ at a private meeting to hide their identity.
The existence of the letter was first revealed by CBS’s 60 Minutes after Trump said he has a right to meet the person who triggered an impeachment probe against him.
Battling the deepest crisis of his presidency, Trump has railed against assertions that he should be impeached for urging Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden, his potential 2020 White House challenger.
‘Like every American, I deserve to meet my accuser, especially when this accuser, the so-called “Whistleblower,” represented a perfect conversation with a foreign leader in a totally inaccurate and fraudulent way,’ Trump wrote in a tweet Sunday.
Trump accused top Democratic lawmaker Adam Schiff of lying to Congress last week about what Trump said to Zelensky in the July phone call.
‘He wrote down and read terrible things, then said it was from the mouth of the President of the United States. I want Schiff questioned at the highest level for Fraud & Treason,’ he wrote.
Trump’s Republican aides have sought to turn the tables on Democrats pushing for his impeachment, insisting that the president was the true ‘whistleblower’ as he had asked Ukraine to investigate Biden and his son for corruption.
Battling the deepest crisis of his presidency, Trump has railed against assertions that he should be impeached for urging Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (left) to investigate Joe Biden, his potential 2020 White House challenger
‘This individual is a saboteur trying to undermine a democratically elected government,’ Trump advisor Stephen Miller insisted on Fox News Sunday.
‘Getting to the bottom of a corruption scandal in Ukraine is in the American national interest.’
Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani – who has emerged as his point man in the Ukraine scandal – led the charge along with Miller in combative Sunday talk show appearances.
Brandishing what he said were affidavits incriminating Biden’s son Hunter over his work at a Ukrainian company, Giuliani said Trump was duty bound to raise the issue with Kiev.
‘If he hadn’t asked them to investigate Biden, he would have violated the constitution,’ Giuliani told ABC’s This Week, charging that ‘Donald Trump was framed by the Democrats.’
The Democratic-led House of Representatives launched an official impeachment inquiry last week accusing Trump of a ‘mafia-like shakedown’ of Zelensky aimed at damaging Biden.
Trump and his allies claim Biden, as Barack Obama’s vice president, pressured Kiev to fire the country’s top prosecutor to protect his son Hunter, who sat on the board of a gas company, Burisma Holdings, accused of corrupt practices.
Those allegations have largely been debunked and there has been no evidence of illegal conduct or wrongdoing in Ukraine by the Bidens.
But a transcript of the July call shows Trump pushing for Kiev to revisit the matter, saying both Giuliani and US Attorney General Bill Barr would be in touch.
For Democrats, that amounted to a smoking gun, leading Speaker Nancy Pelosi to finally approve an impeachment process she opposed as a risky distraction from the 2020 battle.
Democrats have said articles of impeachment – formal charges – against Trump could be completed in as little as a month and swiftly voted on in the House, where the party has a majority.
The Biden campaign sent a letter Sunday to US TV networks to demanding they stop booking Giuliani for interviews, accusing him of ‘knowingly and willingly’ lying.
Polls suggest public support is growing for the impeachment inquiry, with a new CBS survey showing 55 percent of Americans – and nine in 10 Democrats – approve.
But even if impeachment is approved in the House, Trump would be tried in the Senate – where, for the moment, he appears able to count on a Republican majority to prevent conviction.