Fact-checking website PolitiFact gave President Trump its 2019 “Lie of the Year” distinction for saying the whistleblower complaint that sparked his impeachment was “almost completely wrong.”
The complaint accused Trump of wrongdoing during a July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The whistleblower, citing others who listened to the call, claimed Trump asked Zelensky to investigate political rival Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden.
It also noted that Trump sought an investigation into the origins of the 2016 hack of the Democratic National Committee. The complaint indicated that Trump “sought to pressure the Ukrainian leader to take actions to help the president’s 2020 reelection bid,” a charge that the president has strenuously denied.
In October, Trump wrote on Twitter, “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!”
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!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 6, 2019
According to PolitiFact, since the release of the complaint, Trump has characterized the whistleblower’s account as inaccurate in various ways more than 80 times.
“Despite what Trump claims, the whistleblower got the call ‘almost completely’ right,” managing editor Katie Sanders wrote.
“We know this from the very record of the call the president released. We know this from testimony under oath from career diplomats and other officials,” she continued. “And the president and his allies have told reporters that Trump did what the whistleblower suggested — urged the Ukrainian president to investigate political rival Joe Biden. Their argument is that there was nothing inappropriate or unreasonable about it. Trump on Oct. 3 asked China to look at Biden and his son, Hunter, too.”
The distinction is the only time of the year that PolitiFact calls a statement a “lie” because, according to Sanders, it “speaks to a falsehood that proves to be of real consequence and gets repeated in a virtual campaign to undermine an accurate narrative.”
The complaint by the whistleblower, who is alleged to be 33-year-old CIA analyst Eric Ciaramella, set off an impeachment investigation and an expected vote on impeachment this week.
Ciaramella was Ukraine director on the National Security Council during the end of the Obama administration and stayed there during the early months of the Trump administration when he was briefly acting senior director for European and Russian affairs. He is now a deputy national intelligence officer for Russia and Eurasia on the National Intelligence Council, reporting to the director of national intelligence.
