Trump retweets then deletes a post naming whistleblower
President Donald Trump retweeted and then deleted a post naming the alleged whistleblower who filed the complaint that became the catalyst for the congressional inquiry that resulted in his impeachment by the House of Representatives.
On Friday night, local time, Trump shared a Twitter post from @surfermom77, who describes herself as ‘‘100% Trump supporter,’’ with his 68 million followers. That tweet prominently named the alleged whistleblower and suggested that he had committed perjury. By Saturday morning, Trump’s retweet had been deleted.
For months, Trump has threatened to disclose the identity of the whistleblower, complaining that he should be able to face his accuser. In the past few days, he has inched closer to doing so. On Thursday night, the president retweeted a link to a Washington Examiner story that used the name.
The alleged whistleblower has also been named in other conservative media, including Breitbart News. He was named by a contributor on Fox News, and Donald Trump Jr has tweeted the name.
The whistleblower’s identity has been kept secret because of whistleblower protection laws, which exist to shield those who come forward with allegations of wrongdoing by the government. Whistleblower advocates say this anonymity is important, because it protects those who speak up from retaliation and encourages others to come forward.
The White House did not immediately respond to request for comment.
The Washington Post has chosen not to publish the name. Vice President for Communications Kris Coratti said The Post ‘‘has long respected the right of whistleblowers to report wrongdoing in confidence, which protects them against retaliation. We also withhold identities or other facts when we believe that publication would put an individual at risk. Both of those considerations apply in this case.’’
Trump and his allies claim the law does not forbid disclosing the identity of the whistleblower. Federal laws offer only limited protection for those in the intelligence community who report wrongdoing, and those in the intelligence community have even fewer protections than their counterparts in other agencies.
The 1998 Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection Act did not detail any protections for whistleblowers from retaliation – instead merely describing the process to make a complaint.
Whistleblower attorney Bradley P. Moss told the The Post in September that the law does not apply to members of Congress who might disclose the whistleblower’s name. ‘‘This is all very, very fragile, and a lot of the protections that we understand to exist are based more on courtesy and custom than anything written down in law,’’ Moss said.
Moss is the law partner of Mark Zaid, one of the whistleblower’s attorneys, though he has had no involvement in that case.
The whistleblower, who works for the Central Intelligence Agency, filed an official complaint that, among other concerns, pointed to a July 25 phone conversation in which Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, a Democratic presidential candidate.
After several months of investigation, the House voted Dec. 18 to impeach Trump on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. – Washington Post