As news of a second intelligence community whistleblower who claims to have more direct knowledge of President Donald Trump’s July 25 phone call with the Ukrainian president spreads, the attorney for the first whistleblower confirmed that he’s representing the second one as well.
According to The Hill , attorney Andrew P. Bakaj confirmed in a Sunday morning tweet that his firm is officially representing “multiple” whistleblowers relating to the explosive Ukraine phone call situation.
“IC WHISTLEBLOWER UPDATE: I can confirm that my firm and my team represent multiple whistleblowers in connection to the underlying August 12, 2019, disclosure to the Intelligence Community Inspector General. No further comment at this time,” Bakaj tweeted .
Mark Zaid, who works for the same firm as Bakaj and also represents the original whistleblower, reported to ABC News on Sunday that he’s representing a second whistleblower who he claims has deeper knowledge of what took place on Trump’s phone call with President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Zaid said the second anonymous person to file a complaint against Trump has already been interviewed by Michael Atkinson, who works as an inspector general for the intelligence community, but has yet to speak to any congressional committees on the issue.
As previously reported by The Inquisitr , Trump continued his online attacks against both the first and potential second anonymous sources in a series of tweets throughout the week. He has accused the first whistleblower of having partisan motives and charged the person with providing the whistleblower the information they filed in the complaint as a “spy.”
In a Saturday tweet-attack, Trump railed against the second one as well, accusing them of working as an operative of the “deep state,” which is a conspiracy Trump often cites as a government group who wants to undermine his presidency.
“The first so-called second hand information ‘Whistleblower’ got my phone conversation almost completely wrong, so now word is they are going to the bench and another ‘Whistleblower’ is coming in from the Deep State, also with second hand info. Meet with Shifty. Keep them coming!” Trump tweeted .
The original complaint, which was later corroborated by a memo-based transcript of the phone call between Trump and Zelenksky, sparked a formal impeachment inquiry initiated by the Democrat-led House. On Friday, Atkinson appeared before the House Intelligence Committee, chaired by Rep. Adam Schiff, to share information on his probe into the whistleblower’s complaint.
Revelations from that closed-door testimony, according to House members who sat on the panel, apparently confirmed many of the whistleblower’s details.
“Now that we have all seen the call record, we can see that the [inspector general’s] determination was correct in both respects,” Schiff said, citing Atkinson’s conclusion that the complaint was “urgent and credible.”