A veteran national security attorney who represented the Ukraine whistleblower said he is not aware of any retaliation against the U.S. intelligence official whose complaint sparked last year’s impeachment proceedings against President Trump.
Mark Zaid, who does not represent the Ukraine whistleblower anymore, provided his best-guess assessment during a discussion Thursday with Dan Abrams on the ABC News chief legal analyst’s SiriusXM radio show, during which they also talked about the controversial removal of an HHS official.
“I’m not aware of any type of retaliatory action that has been taken against this individual,” Zaid said of the Ukraine whistleblower.
Zaid noted how this is different from what happened with other prominent figures in the Ukraine impeachment proceedings “who were within the political sphere of the president’s discretionary determination.” He named Gordon Sondland, an impeachment witness who was recalled from his post as U.S. ambassador to the European Union, and Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, another impeachment witness who was removed from the White House National Security Council (along with his twin brother) and transferred to the Pentagon.
“So, it was a lot easier to just say, ‘I’m moving you somewhere else,’ or, ‘I’m terminating your position,'” Zaid said. “Our former client is a regular civil servant in an intel agency, and that complicates it as far as retaliation. I mean, it’s still possible, of course, and I’m just telling you what I know.”
Zaid, along with fellow Washington lawyer Andrew Bakaj, announced in a New York Times opinion article in early March that they were no longer representing the Ukraine whistleblower. In that piece, they called for Congress to strengthen whistleblower protection laws, arguing that their former client faced a “sustained campaign of intimidation” after filing a complaint about Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Zaid called his former client’s new legal representation “very competent” and noted that when he and Bakaj stopped representing the individual, “There was nothing going on.”
The Ukraine whistleblower’s identity was never publicly confirmed. The House impeached Trump on abuse of power and obstruction of Congress charges, but the Senate acquitted him on both impeachment articles.
