On Sunday, as President Donald Trump and his administration prepare for could be a wild week with regard to the Democrat-led impeachment investigation, he posted a tweet that urged the mainstream media to release the name of the anonymous whistleblower who, so far, has remained unidentified.
According to The Hill , Trump told reporters that the media already knows who the whistleblower is but implied that they are refusing to report the name.
Trump has long argued that the whistleblower — who sparked the impeachment inquiry after filing a complaint over the president’s July 25 phone call with Ukraine — should be outed so that he has a chance to face his accuser. The president has also maintained that his phone call with the Ukrainian president was “perfect.”
“The whistleblower gave a very inaccurate report about my phone call. My phone call was perfecto. It was totally appropriate. He gave a report – he or she, but according to the newspapers it’s a he,” Trump told reporters Sunday.
Trump went on to suggest specifically that CNN knows who the person is, though he offered no further evidence to back the claim.
“They know who it is. You know who it is. You just don’t want to report it. CNN knows who it is, but you don’t want to report it. And you know, you would be doing the public a service if you did,” Trump said.
Attorneys for the whistleblower have been insistent that their client’s identity remain a secret, citing the possibility of placing that person in danger should he or she be outed to the public.
“Because our client has no additional information about the president’s call, there is no justification for exposing their identity and all the risks that would follow,” attorneys Andrew Bakaj and Mark Zaid wrote about their client last month in an op-ed.
Trump says the identity of the whistleblower is known, according to reports in the media. “You know who it is you just don’t want to report it,” he tells us pic.twitter.com/hCZ8tTIMVR
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) November 3, 2019
Trump isn’t the only person who wishes to find out who the anonymous whistleblower is. As The Inquisitr recently reported, a growing number of House Republicans have reportedly been asking questions behind closed-door depositions that Democrats believe is an attempt to identify the person.
They echoed the same argument as the president as justification in identifying the whistleblower. They claim it would give the president the opportunity to face his accuser, as well as explore any potential political biases or motives the person might or might not have had when they filed the complaint.
There are currently no legal implications for the president or members of Congress if they find out who the whistleblower is and publicly name them, with the exception of that person being a covert intelligence agent.
As CNN reported, Democrats are moving on to the next phase of the impeachment process this coming week, with high hopes of hearing testimony from Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton.