Trump faces backlash for retweeting article that NAMES the alleged CIA whistleblower whose complaint led to the impeachment inquiry – even though the president’s own staff had warned him not to
- President Trump has shared a tweet which features a link to an article naming the alleged whistleblower who reported his July call with Ukrainian president
- The whistleblower is purported to be a CIA employee who heard secondhand information about Trump’s phone conversation
- The whistleblower’s report was the catalyst for the current impeachment inquiry, which is advancing towards a Senate trial
- Democrats have vowed to protect the whistleblower’s name, claiming that the person’s safety would be threatened if it was revealed
President Trump has come under fire for posting a tweet which features a link to an article naming the alleged whistleblower who kick-started the current impeachment inquiry.
On Thursday night, the Commander-in-chief retweeted a post from his 2020 re-election campaign account which read: ‘It’s pretty simple. The CIA ‘whistleblower’ is not a real whistleblower.’
The post also linked to an article from conservative outlet The Washington Examiner, which names the CIA agent who first reported Trump’s now-infamous July 25 phone call with Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Democrats claim the phone call showed evidence that Trump was trying to dig up dirt on political rival Joe Biden, whose son once served on the board of a Ukrainian gas company, which was investigated for corruption.
Meanwhile, Democrats have steadfastly insisted on keeping the whistelblower’s name a secret, in order to protect his or her safety.
In contrast, Trump has repeatedly pushed for their identity to be revealed, claiming it will show that the whistleblower is a partisan operative motivated by their left-wing bias.
‘
Just last month, Trump called upon members of the media to publish whistleblower’s name, stating: ”You guys ought to release the information.’
‘The whistleblower should be revealed because the whistleblower gave false stories. Some people would call it fraud. I won’t go that far but, when I read it closely, I probably would.
He also tweeted on the same day that the whistleblower ‘got it sooo wrong that HE must come forward.’
Meanwhile ranking member of the House Oversight Committee Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, rejected an offer by the whistleblower’s attorney Mark Zaid to answer questions in writing as part of the impeachment investigation.
Jordan said: ‘Written answers will not provide a sufficient opportunity to probe all the relevant facts and cross examine the so-called whistleblower.
‘You don’t get to ignite an impeachment effort and never account for your actions and role in orchestrating it.’
President Trump had the whistleblower on his mind Sunday morning as he tweeted that they should ‘come forward’ because they got the contents of his phone call with the Ukranian president ‘sooo wrong’
By Sunday afternoon, President Trump was tweeting that reporters’ hiding the whistleblowers identity was a deliberate deception to help the Democratic Party
Trump later suggested that the media was deliberately hiding the whistleblower’s ID to help the Democrats.
‘The Fake News Media is working hard so that information about the Whistleblower’s identity, which may be very bad for them and their Democrat partners, never reaches the Public,’ Trump tweeted .
Meanwhile, the whistleblower’s attorney, Mark Zaid said his team had addressed the issue of alleged bias with Republican members of the committee and had stressed the need for anonymity to maintain the safety of the whistleblower and that person’s family, ‘but with little effect in halting the attacks.’
‘Let me be absolutely clear: Our willingness to cooperate has not changed,’ tweeted Andrew P. Bakaj, another attorney representing the whistleblower. ‘What we object to and find offensive, however, is the effort to uncover the identity of the whistleblower.’
Bakaj wrote that ‘their fixation on exposing the whistleblower’s identity is simply because they’re at a loss as to how to address the investigations the underlying disclosure prompted.’
The whistleblower’s secondhand account of the call has been providing a road map for House Democrats investigating whether the president and others in his orbit pressured Ukraine to probe political opponents, including former Vice President Joe Biden.
U.S. whistleblower laws exist to protect the identity and careers of people who bring forward accusations of wrongdoing by government officials.
Lawmakers in both parties have historically backed those protections.