WASHINGTON - A second whistleblower has come forward, this one with first-hand information of the events that triggered an impeachment investigation of President Donald Trump for alleged abuse of power, the informant's lawyer said Sunday.
"I can confirm this report of a second #whistleblower being represented by our legal team," Mark Zaid said on Twitter. "They also made a protected disclosure under the law and cannot be retaliated against. This WBer has first-hand knowledge."
Earlier Sunday, Zaid's co-counsel, Andrew Bakaj, said his firm and team "represent multiple whistleblowers" in the case accusing Trump of using the powers of his office to pressure Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky in a phone call to investigate political rival Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
It was unclear whether Bakaj was using "multiple" to refer to more than two whistleblowers. Typically, several officials would listen in on a call between the president and a foreign leader, while others would have access to a written transcript or summary.
The existence of a whistleblower claiming first-hand knowledge would make it harder for the president and his supporters to dismiss the original complaint as hearsay, as they have repeatedly done.
TRUMP PUSHES BACK
Trump pushed back at the allegations in two tweets early Sunday, though he made no mention of the second whistleblower.
He repeated his assertion that Hunter Biden had been "handed $100,000 a month (Plus,Plus) from a Ukrainian based company, even though he had no experience in energy...and separately got 1.5 Billion Dollars from China despite no experience and for no apparent reason."
He added that as president, "I have an OBLIGATION to look into possible, or probable, CORRUPTION!"
Other reports have said Hunter Biden was paid up to $50,000 a month as a member of the board of a Ukrainian gas company, Burisma.
No evidence has been found that either Biden did anything illegal.
A bit unusually for a Sunday, Trump was staying in the White House rather than traveling or playing golf.
"On one of the most critical news weeks of the last three years," CNN said in a tweet quoting anchor Jake Tapper, "the White House did not offer a guest, the President's personal lawyers and Congressional GOP leaders either declined to be on the show or did not respond."
But one Republican senator, Ron Johnson, who serves on the Foreign Relations Committee, appeared on NBC's "Meet the Press" and rejected the suggestion that Trump had withheld military aid to pressure Ukraine to investigate the Bidens.
"When I asked the president about that," he said, "he completely adamantly, vehemently, angrily denied it."
'HARASSMENT'
The latest turns in the explosive impeachment inquiry came a day after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused Democratic-led congressional committees leading the probe of having "harassed and abused" State Department employees by contacting them directly for documents rather than going through department lawyers.
The House committees issued subpoenas on Friday -- including to the White House -- as evidence mounted that Trump attempted to withhold US military aid to pressure Zelensky into seeking damaging information on Biden, who has led in most polls of 2020 Democratic presidential aspirants.
The impeachment investigation saga began after the original whistleblower -- an intelligence official -- filed a formal complaint to the intelligence community inspector general about Trump's alleged pressuring of Zelensky.
A rough transcript of the phone call later released by the White House, as well as a series of text messages between US diplomats, appeared to corroborate the original complaint.
Zaid recently told the Washingtonian magazine that he hoped the identity of the original whistleblower -- whom Trump has assailed as treasonous -- would never become public.
His co-counsel, Bakaj, previously worked in the inspector general's offices at both the CIA and the Defense Department on whistleblower-related issues.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
WASHINGTON - Only a handful of people know his or her identity, but the whistleblower whose complaint threatens to implode Donald Trump's presidency is already being lauded as both a hero and a traitor.
Six weeks after submitting a damning complaint about Trump that was made public Thursday, neither the president nor his intelligence chief knows their name or job, much less Democrats who have made the complaint the basis of an impeachment probe of the US leader.
The New York Times reported Thursday that the person is a man who works for the Central Intelligence Agency and had been seconded for a time to the White House.
The whistleblower's explosive complaint depicts Trump using his official powers to pressure Ukraine's president to get dirt on former vice president Joe Biden, currently the most likely Democrat to face Trump in next year's presidential election.
Democrats have accused the president of abuse of power in seeking foreign interference in a US election, two years after Russia meddled in the 2016 vote to help Trump's campaign.
The complaint only identifies the whistleblower as a member of the sprawling US intelligence community, 16 separate bodies with 100,000 people.
But it suggests the person is a skilled analyst deeply knowledegable about Eastern European politics with strong contacts in the White House.
'BY THE BOOK'
He or she recruited attorney Andrew Bakaj, a specialist in national security and whistleblower law, to help prepare the August 12 complaint for the inspector general of the intelligence community.
"I don't know the identity of the whistleblower. I just hear that it's a partisan person," Trump said earlier this week.
"I don't know who the whistleblower is," acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire, the leader of the intelligence community, said Thursday.
Federal whistleblowers have strong protections under a special law governing officials wanting to report wrongdoing by colleagues or superiors, but they have to go through a strictly defined process.
Maguire said the person acted "by the book."
"I think the whistleblower did everything in the right way," he told the House Intelligence Committee.
TRUMP: 'ALMOST A SPY'
But protecting the person could be hard. Bakaj has agreed to have them appear behind closed doors at the House and Senate Intelligence Committees to answer questions about the complaint.
Trump has already launched a campaign of personal attacks, accusing the whistleblower of relying on secondary reports from others in the intelligence community and holding a bias against the president.
"Who is this so-called 'whistleblower' who doesn't know the correct facts. Is he on our Country's side," Trump asked in a tweet this week.
And on Thursday, Trump appeared to threaten them.
"They're almost a spy," Trump said in a private meeting, according to a recording published by the Los Angeles times.
"You know what we used to do in the old days when we were smart? Right? The spies and treason, we used to handle it a little differently than we do now."
PRAISE FOR COMING FORWARD
But many others praised the person for risking their career and possibly personal safety by coming forward.
"I want to thank the whistleblower for their courage. They didn't have to step forward," said Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, in a hearing on the complaint Thursday.
Bakaj would not confirm The New York Times report that the whistleblower works for the CIA.
But he assailed the newspaper for endangering the person.
"Any decision to report any perceived identifying information of the whistleblower is deeply concerning and reckless, as it can place the individual in harm's way," The New York Times quoted Bakaj as saying.
"The whistleblower has a right to anonymity."
The nonprofit group Whistleblower Aid opened a public donation site seeking funds for the person's legal fees on Wednesday.
"The US intelligence officer who filed an urgent report of government misconduct needs your help," the group said.
"This brave individual took an oath to protect and defend our Constitution."
One day after the launch, the site had raised more than $79,000 from around 2,200 donors.
pmh/it
source: news.abs-cbn.com
