Second whistleblower on Trump’s dealing with Ukraine comes forward

WASHINGTON: A second whistle-blower in the impeachment inquiry against US President Donald Trump has come forward, according to the lawyer representing the first one.

Mark Zaid said in a text message on Sunday that the second whistle-blower, who also works in intelligence, has spoken to the intelligence community’s internal watchdog.

The lawyer said the second person did not file a complaint with the inspector general but does have “first-hand knowledge that supported” the original whistleblower.

Zaid represents the first whistleblower who filed a complaint on 12 August involving a 25 July phone call Trump held with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky in which he asked him to investigate a Democratic rival, former Vice President Joe Biden.

The complaint alleged Trump was “using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country” in the 2020 election.

But the telephone call and the whistle-blower complaint prompted House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi to launch impeachment proceedings on 24 September against Trump, saying his actions jeopardised US election integrity and threatened national security. STOCKHOLM: Three scientists will share the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, the Nobel committee announced here on Monday.

Oxygen availability

The prize was awarded jointly to William G. Kaelin Jr, Peter J. Ratcliffe and Gregg L. Semenza “for their discoveries of how cells sense and adapt to oxygen availability,” said the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute.

A journalist said the development on Sunday did not refer to “multiple official whistle-blower complaints” but “corroboration” of the initial whistle-blower complaint, adding that it is possible that the development could mean “not much” for the impeachment inquiry.

“Things are solidified already, it would seem. The House Democrats are investigating these complaints. It would appear that most of them have already made up their mind that an impeachable offence might have occurred,” he said.

“We should remember that there are different ways of looking at what happened, and the impeachable offence doesn’t necessarily mean a criminal offence or something that is in statute book of law. It’s a much lower standard, it’s more about misdemeanours, but Congress can very much define what those actually mean,” he added.

The existence of the second whistle-blower followed expressions of discontent within Trump’s own Republican Party after he called on China on Friday to investigate Biden’s son, who had business dealings in China.

No administration officials were scheduled to appear on the Sunday news shows, while several congressional Republicans who were interviewed came to the president’s defence.