Lawyer: Second whistle-blower comes forward

WASHINGTON: A second whistleblower, with first-hand knowledge of US President Donald Trump’s dealings with Ukraine, has spoken with the intelligence community’s internal watchdog, the lawyer representing the official said on Sunday.

Mark Zaid confirmed in an interview with ABC’S This Week that the second official, also from the US intelligence community, has been interviewed by the inspector general. Zaid represents the first whistle-blower who filed a complaint involving a July 25 phone call Trump held with Ukraine’s president in which he asked him to investigate a Democratic rival, former vice president Joe Biden.

IMPEACH MITT: TRUMP BLASTS GOP SENATOR President Donald Trump on Saturday opened a new front in the impeachment battle by blasting Mitt Romney, a prominent member of his Republican Party for criticising his push to get foreign nations to probe the Bidens.

Trump tweeted that the US senator was a “pompous ‘ass’ who has been fighting me from the beginning”.

Romney, who lost the 2012 election to Democratic incumbent President Barack Obama, criticised Trump on Friday for asking China to investigate Joe Biden.

In a tweet, Trump said he was hearing that people in Utah regretted electing Romney to the Senate in 2018. “I agree! He is a fool who is playing right into the hands of the Do Nothing Democrats! #IMPEACHMITTROMNEY,” Trump wrote.

Trump also defended again as “appropriate” the July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that triggered the impeachment inquiry in the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives.