Potential Second Whistleblower Reportedly Could File Complaint About Ukraine Phone Call
Amid a growing controversy stemming from a report filed by a whistleblower in the intelligence community, alleging that President Donald Trump attempted to pressure the Ukrainian president into providing information on former vice president Joe Biden, another whistleblower is reportedly considering coming forward with a similar complaint.
According to The Hill, a report on Friday published by The New York Times revealed that a second person in the intelligence community is considering filing an official complaint regarding Trump’s phone call to President Volodymyr Zelensky. The newspaper cited two officials who were briefed on the situation.
Interestingly, the second potential whistleblower allegedly has “more direct information” on the phone call than the original whistleblower. The first informant didn’t have direct information on the phone call between the two leaders, but in their report, they claimed they received the information from “multiple White House officials with direct knowledge.”
The second potential whistleblower has reportedly already been interviewed by Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson in an attempt to corroborate the original informant’s claims.
Though acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire told Congress during a hearing last month that he believed the original whistleblower did the “right thing” in filing the complaint, Trump has since repeatedly attacked the individual with claims that they’re “partisan” as well as questioning the motive behind their report.
A number of Republican Senators have also switched into defensive roles to attack the credibility of the original whistleblower, according to The Hill.
“Secondly, after a certain point, it doesn’t just allege facts, it really is kind of a dossier or political diatribe, so I think there are plenty of reasons to be skeptical. Having said that, we are in the process of talking to the director of national intelligence and the inspector general,” said Sen. John Cornyn.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of Trump’s most powerful allies in the U.S. Senate, also questioned the first whistleblower’s motives, stating that their report “makes me more suspicious about how all this happened.” He also said that he wanted to know the person who provided the information to this individual.
While it didn’t receive nearly as much media coverage, another whistleblower report surfaced this week that accused a political appointee in the U.S. Department of Treasure of allegedly running interference on a tax audit on both the president’s and vice president’s tax returns, according to The Inquisitr.
The complaint, which was made by an employee of the Internal Revenue Service, was mostly dismissed by the White House, who called it “flimsy” because it wasn’t reportedly based on first-hand knowledge, but rather on information from other government officials.
