President Donald Trump raged at the whistleblower who reported his phone call urging the Ukrainian president to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, even though the White House released a partial call transcript confirming the whistleblower’s claims.
“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 tweeted, even though the White House transcript showed him urging the Ukrainian president to investigate Biden.
“I want to meet not only my accuser, who presented SECOND & THIRD HAND INFORMATION, but also the person who illegally gave this information, which was largely incorrect, to the ‘Whistleblower.’ Was this person SPYING on the U.S. President? Big Consequences!” Trump wrote.
The information is not considered “largely incorrect.” The whistleblower complaint was deemed “credible” by the intelligence community’s inspector general (who was appointed by Trump) and he and acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire (who was appointed by Trump) both submitted criminal referrals to the Justice Department over the call.
Trump suggested intel staff was guilty of treason:
Trump previously suggested last week that the person who talked to the whistleblower was a “spy” and guilty of “treason” even though the whistleblower complaint cited numerous government officials who spoke about the claims in the complaint.
“I want to know who’s the person who gave the whistle-blower the information because that’s close to a spy,” Trump said. “You know what we used to do in the old days when we were smart with spies and treason, right? We used to handle it a little differently than we do now.”
Whistleblower fears for personal safety:
The whistleblower’s attorney sent a letter to Maguire expressing “serious concerns” for the whistleblower’s “personal safety.”
“We appreciate your office’s support thus far to activate appropriate resources to ensure their safety,” the letter said. “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,” it added, citing Trump’s treason comment.
“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,” the attorneys wrote. “Moreover, certain individuals have issued a $50,000 ‘bounty’ for ‘any information’ relating to our client’s identity. 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.”
