The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Warning to president over lashing out at whistleblower aids
Allegations Trump aimed to ‘solicit interference’ in 2020 election
Donald Trump has been warned against retaliating as he lashed out at anyone who might have helped an intelligence whistleblower whose complaint is at the centre of the impeachment probe.
The whistleblower’s complaint alleged that the president abused the power of his office to “solicit interference from a foreign country” in next year’s US election.
In a July 25 phone call, days after ordering a freeze to some military assistance for Ukraine, Mr Trump prodded new President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate Democrat rival Joe Biden and volunteered the assistance of his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and attorney general William Barr.
Late on Thursday, Mr Trump denounced people who might have talked to the whistleblower as “close to a spy” and suggested they engaged in treason, an act punishable by death.
Yesterday, he targeted the complainant, a CIA officer, tweeting: “Sounding more and more like the so-called Whistleblower isn’t a Whistleblower at all.”
Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House of Representatives, told MSNBC’S Morning Joe show: “I’m concerned about some of the president’s comments about the whistleblower.”
She said House panels conducting the impeachment probe will make sure there is no retaliation against people who provided information in the case.
On Thursday, House Democratic chairmen called Mr Trump’s comments “witness intimidation” and suggested efforts by him to interfere with the potential witness could be unlawful.
Mr Trump’s comment questioning the whistleblower’s status could foreshadow an effort to argue that legal protection laws do not apply to the person, opening a new front in the president’s battles with Congress.
The intelligence community’s inspector general found the whistleblower’s complaint “credible” despite finding indications of the person’s support for a different political candidate.
As more Democrats have lent support to investigations that could result in the removal of the president, Ms Pelosi has moved to focus the probe on the Ukraine matter, rather than the array of other open inquiries.