“Multiple” whistleblowers have come forward about President Trump’s efforts to pressure Ukraine to dig up dirt on Joe Biden, said a lawyer for the original whistleblower who set off the impeachment case roiling the nation.
“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,” attorney Andrew Bakaj tweeted Sunday.
One of the new whistleblowers was described as an intelligence official with “first-hand knowledge” of some of the allegations in the original complaint. That complaint described how the president urged his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky to work with Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr on digging up dirt about Biden, the leading Democratic presidential candidate. The complaint also detailed a cover-up in which White House officials tried to hide a transcript of the call on a super-secret server.
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. https://t.co/05b5aAVm2G
— Andrew P. Bakaj (@AndrewBakaj) October 6, 2019
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Attorney Mark Zaid, another member of the whistleblowers’ legal team, told George Stephanopoulos of ABC News on Sunday that one of his new clients has spoken with the intelligence community’s inspector general, Michael Atkinson.
That new whistleblower’s claim to first-hand knowledge of the allegations could help shut down Trump’s efforts to discredit the original complaint. The president has tried to depict it as unreliable since it was based on second-hand accounts of Trump’s conduct.
House Democrats have been moving full-speed ahead with impeachment proceedings, questioning officials and demanding documents from a defensive White House since Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced an impeachment inquiry Sept. 24.
Trump has been on a rampage ever since, suggesting that leading Dems are guilty of treason and trying to discredit the veracity of the whistleblower’s complaint.
He continued his series of unhinged tirades Sunday, tweeting, “It is INCREDIBLE to watch and read the Fake News and how they pull out all stops to protect Sleepy Joe Biden” and his son Hunter Biden.
Trump went on to rehash unfounded conspiracy theories about the Bidens.
It is INCREDIBLE to watch and read the Fake News and how they pull out all stops to protect Sleepy Joe Biden and his thrown out of the Military son, Hunter, who was handed $100,000 a month (Plus,Plus) from a Ukrainian based company, even though he had no experience in energy,…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 6, 2019
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His minions in Congress maintained their war against impeachment, with Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) giving a particularly belligerent interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“I’m pretty sympathetic with what President Trump has gone through,” Johnson said. “I have never in my lifetime seen a president, after being elected, not having some measure of well wishes from his opponents.”
When host Chuck Todd tried to get him to answer questions, the senator took a page from Trump’s playbook and went off on a tirade on an unrelated topic.
“I don’t trust Andrew McCabe. I don’t trust James Comey. I don’t trust Peter Strzok. I don’t trust John Brennan,” Johnson rambled, referencing law enforcement and intelligence officials who have run afoul of Trump.
“I’m sorry that you chose … to come on this way,” Todd admonished the belligerent pol.
But not all Republicans were towing the Trump line Sunday.
Former Rep. Joe Walsh of Illinois, who’s running a long-shot primary campaign against the president, called him a “traitor” and said he’d vote to impeach him if he were still in office.
“This is a strong term I’m going to use, but I’m going to say it on purpose: Donald Trump is a traitor,” Walsh said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Three House committees demanded documents from Vice President Mike Pence on Friday. Dems are expected to subpoena the White House for additional paperwork in the coming days.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who recently admitted to being on the July 25 call between Trump and Zelensky, defied a House subpoena deadline to provide relevant documents by Friday, accusing Congress of harassing State Department staff.
Rep. Eliot Engel (D-Bronx/Westchester), the chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Sunday: “I find it really laughable that the secretary of state suddenly has this great concern for the State Department when he’s done anything but since he’s been secretary of state.”
