Trump Jr. reveals name in tweet
‘Whistleblower’ triggered probe for impeachment
Donald Trump Jr. Wednesday tweeted the name of the alleged whistleblower whose complaint about his father’s behaviour toward Ukraine kick-started the impeachment inquiry.
For days, conservative websites have been publishing stories claiming to have discovered the identity of the CIA officer who filed a complaint about the U.S. president’s behaviour.
Amid a backdrop of partisan attacks on the whistleblower’s credibility, Donald Trump’s eldest son posted one such report that named the individual and questioned their motives.
After an immediate backlash, Trump Jr doubled down, writing on Twitter: “I love the outrage about me tweeting an article about the ‘alleged’ whistleblower.”
The Telegraph has not independently verified the identity of the whistleblower, who has asked to remain anonymous, and is not publishing the name.
Trump Jr. took the step as a chorus of vitriol from Trump and his supporters was directed at the whistleblower, including demands for the person to be named and allegations about their links to Democrats.
The whistleblower, who comes from the intelligence community, filed a detailed complaint alleging that Trump had put pressure on Ukraine to launch an investigation into Joe Biden, the former U.S. vice president who could be the Democratic nominee for the 2020 presidential election.
Many of the details in the complaint, which has since been made public, have been corroborated by other witnesses in the impeachment inquiry that followed, including that Trump requested a Biden investigation while on the phone to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Whistleblowers are granted protections in America through a number of overlapping laws. The Inspector General Act of 1978, for example, bars a government watchdog who receives a complaint from disclosing the identity of that person without consent, unless it is deemed “unavoidable.”
The law appears not to bind others, such as the president or his allies, from outing the whistleblower if the identity is discovered.
In a statement issued after Trump Jr.’s tweet, the whistleblower’s attorneys warned that “identifying any suspected name for the whistleblower will place that individual and their family at risk of serious harm.”