President Donald Trump demanded Monday that the “whistleblower,” who accused him of breaking the law during a conversation with the Ukranian president, reveal himself.
“Like every American, I deserve to meet my accuser, especially when this accuser, the so-called ‘Whistleblower,’ represented a perfect conversation with a foreign leader in a totally inaccurate and fraudulent way,” Trump wrote on Twitter, adding, “I want to meet not only my accuser, who presented SECOND & THIRD-HAND INFORMATION but also the person who illegally gave this information, which was largely incorrect, to the ‘Whistleblower.'”
Trump put the “whistleblower” label in quotes, questioning if the accuser fit the role of a whistleblower after Democrats changed the description of a whistleblower role to include knowledge from secondhand sources.
“WHO CHANGED THE LONG STANDING WHISTLEBLOWER RULES JUST BEFORE SUBMITTAL OF THE FAKE WHISTLEBLOWER REPORT?” Trump wrote in all-caps. “DRAIN THE SWAMP!”
The New York Times identified the “whistleblower” as a male CIA agent assigned to the White House.
Trump’s complaints on Twitter appeared to stem from an appearance from Sen. Lindsey Graham on Face the Nation.
“Every American deserves to confront their accuser. So this is a sham, as far as I’m concerned. I want to know who told the whistle-blower about the phone call,” Graham said on Sunday. “I want to know why they changed the rules about whistle-blowers not — the hearsay rule was changed just a short period of time before the complaint was filed.”
Trump also questioned if the secondhand information the whistleblower acquired was obtained from a spy in the government.
“Was this person SPYING on the U.S. President?” he asked. “Big Consequences!”