Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is warning top intelligence officials that President Trump may reveal the identity of the whistleblower whose complaint helped spur an impeachment inquiry.
A letter sent by the New York Democrat to acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire and Inspector General Michael Atkinson on Monday says the president’s scathing comments could pose a threat to the whistleblower if a name is leaked and seeks answers about what is being done to ensure protection for this person against retaliation.
Citing Trump’s “ill-advised statements,” “lack of respect for the rule of law,” and “his well-documented habit of condoning violence by his supporters,” Schumer wrote that he is “concerned that he may disclose the whistleblower’s identity or cause it to be disclosed.”
“If that were to happen, it will be your responsibility to take immediate action to protect the whistleblower from both workplace reprisal and threats to his or her personal safety,” he added.
Concerned that whatever security precautions the intelligence official has already taken may be insufficient, Schumer also asks what “specific steps” are being taken to protect the intelligence official if his or her identity is disclosed. He said that reports of one or more additional whistleblowers coming forward creates “security concerns.”
The whistleblower, identified by the Washington Examiner as a career CIA analyst who was at one point assigned to the White House, filed a complaint that raised concerns about Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in which he pressed for an investigation into his political rival Joe Biden, and an effort to conceal details of that private conversation and others using a highly secure computer system. The complaint was submitted to Atkinson, who deemed the complaint credible.
Maguire has said he is “committed to protecting whistleblowers and ensuring every complaint is handled appropriately.”
Trump and his advisers have frantically searched for the identity of the CIA analyst while his GOP allies have complained that House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, who has taken a leading role in the impeachment inquiry, had foreknowledge of the whistleblower’s complaint and misled them about what he knew.
Trump has said he wants to know the identity of the whistleblower, whom he called a “fraud,” and suggested the official’s sources are spies who should be executed for “treason.”
He told reporters on Monday, “Do we have to protect a whistleblower who gives a false account? I don’t know. You tell me.”
