President Trump isn’t done with his crusade to expose the identity of the whistleblower whose complaint detailing the Ukraine pressure campaign sparked the impeachment inquiry.
On Thursday night, the President retweeted an article from the Washington Examiner that names the person that Trump’s allies allege to be the whistleblower. This is the first time Trump has drawn public attention to the alleged whistleblower’s name.
Trump’s retweet came after a Twitter account associated with his 2020 campaign, @TrumpWarRoom, replied to a tweet by the whistleblower’s attorney, Mark Zaid, criticizing Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) for her attacks against the whistleblower.
“Members of Senate Whistleblower Caucus should protect #whistleblowers, not attack them,” Zaid tweeted, noting that the Director of National Intelligence’s office and the Intelligence Community Inspector General “has made it clear lawful protections exist.”
“So why is Senator @MarshaBlackburn pretending to be bi-partisan Caucus Member given her many attacks?” Zaid asked.
In response to Zaid’s tweet, the @TrumpWarRoom account defended Blackburn by replying: “It’s pretty simple. The CIA ‘whistleblower’ is not a real whistleblower!” It then linked to a Washington Examiner article that named the CIA officer who Trump’s allies allege to be the whistleblower.
Trump then retweeted that tweet.
As the impeachment inquiry ramped up over the past few months, Trump’s congressional allies, such as Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC), have called for the whistleblower’s identity to be made public.
Earlier this month, Trump claimed he didn’t have a preference about the length or details of the impending Senate impeachment trial, but said he wouldn’t mind if it was a “long” process because he wants to see the whistleblower exposed.
Last month, Zaid’s co-counsel Bakaj sent the White House a cease and desist letter, warning that the President’s constant stream of attacks on the “whistleblower” are putting his client in “physical danger.”
