The anonymous whistleblower who claimed that President Donald Trump pressured the Ukraine’s head of state to investigate Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden didn’t have direct knowledge of what was said, according to a new report.
CNN‘s Stephen Collinson reported Friday that the whistleblower “didn’t have direct knowledge of the communications,” citing an official briefed on the matter:
Instead, the whistleblower’s concerns came in part from learning information that was not obtained during the course of their work, and those details have played a role in the administration’s determination that the complaint didn’t fit the reporting requirements under the intelligence whistleblower law, the official said.
CNN buried the revelation 22 paragraphs into the article titled, “New revelations deepen scandal over Trump whistleblower complaint.”
The new revelation complicates the accusations against the president, which first surfaced in the Wall Street Journal this week.
The newspaper reported that an anonymous whistleblower claimed President Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to work with Rudy Giuliani to look into Hunter Biden’s business dealings with Ukraine during a phone call in July.
The report said the business dealings were between Hunter Biden and an energy company owned by a Ukrainian oligarch while Joe Biden was Vice President.
Trump has defended himself against the allegations, calling the whistleblower’s statements “highly partisan” in a tweet on Friday.
He also called the accusations another “witch hunt” in a separate tweet on Saturday.
“Now that the Democrats and the Fake News Media have gone ‘bust’ on every other of their Witch Hunt schemes, they are trying to start one just as ridiculous as the others, call it the Ukraine Witch Hunt, while at the same time trying to protect Sleepy Joe Biden,” the president tweeted.
“Will fail again!”
Politico reported separately Saturday that the accusations against Trump could backfire on Joe Biden, hurting his chances to become the Democratic nominee for president.
“An extended discussion about his son’s business dealings isn’t helpful to Biden’s electability argument,” the report said.
Follow David Ng on Twitter @HeyItsDavidNg. Have a tip? Contact me at dng@breitbart.com
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