The whistleblower who spurred impeachment proceedings against President Trump is now the subject of a complaint that says the official may be soliciting illegal donations.
The complaint, which was filed last week by an intelligence officer, was sent to the Intelligence Community inspector general and focuses on a GoFundMe page for the whistleblower that has raised more than $227,000.
According to a letter sent by the law firm Tully Rinckey PLLC, their client alleges donations from roughly 6,000 individuals “clearly constitute” gifts to a current intelligence official, which are restricted by statute. Because many of the donors are anonymous, the complaint asks Inspector General of the Intelligence Community Michael Atkinson to investigate whether any “foreign citizen or agent of a foreign government” gave money. The complaint also said the whistleblower’s lawyers may be abusing their client’s access to classified information.
“My client believes … that the federal employee you are protecting and their attorneys apparently have strategically weaponized their alleged whistleblowing activities into a very lucrative money-making enterprise using a charity incorporated under a different name than the trade name it is using for fund-raising purposes, which would appear to my client to be a clear abuse of the federal employee’s authority and access to classified information,” Anthony Gallo, the managing partner of Tully Rinckey, said in the letter sent on Nov. 8.
The person who filed the new complaint remains anonymous, but Tully Rinckey described their client to Fox News as someone who has served in government and holds a top-secret security clearance.
“This isn’t about politics, it is about ethics and ensuring our intelligence officials aren’t collecting cash to pay for their expenses from anonymous or foreign intelligence agencies,” Gallo told the Washington Examiner. “We are merely laying out the facts for the IG to look into this.”
Andrew Bakaj, the whistleblower’s lead attorney, denied the fundraising effort ran afoul of federal law.
“Any fundraising efforts for the Intelligence Community Whistleblower have complied with federal laws, including ethics requirements,” Bakaj told the Washington Examiner in a statement. “Should any governmental agency properly inquire we would, of course, cooperate.”
The GoFundMe page was set up on Sept. 25 by Whistleblower Aid, a nonprofit group that includes the whistleblower’s legal team. Andrew Bakaj, another lawyer from Compass Rose Legal Group who is representing the whistleblower, promoted the link to the page on Twitter. “Please help support the Intelligence Community Whistleblower raise funds via @wbaidlaw – this is a tax-deductible contribution. My sincerest thank you for your support,” he said.
The whistleblower, known to be a CIA analyst who once served on the National Security Council, filed a complaint to Atkinson about a July 25 phone call in which Trump urged President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine to look into a conspiracy theory regarding CrowdStrike and investigate Joe Biden, a Democratic candidate for president in 2020, in relation to his son Hunter Biden’s business dealings in Ukraine.
Although reports have not been confirmed, the alleged whistleblower was named as Eric Ciaramella by RealClearInvestigations. Ciaramella, 33, was Ukraine director on the National Security Council during the end of the Obama administration and remained there as acting senior director for European and Russian affairs during the early months of the Trump administration. He is now a deputy national intelligence officer for Russia and Eurasia on the National Intelligence Council.
In an impeachment process sparked by the complaint, which Atkinson found to be credible, Democrats are now building a case that accuses Trump of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
