Newsletter Newsletters Events Events Podcasts Videos Africanews
Loader
Advertisement

Second whistleblower comes forward in Trump-Ukraine scandal

Image: Donald Trump
President Donald Trump walks across the South Lawn of the White House on Oct. 4, 2019. Copyright  Pablo Martinez Monsivais AP
Copyright Pablo Martinez Monsivais AP
By Max Burman, Kelly O'Donnell and Allan Smith with NBC News Politics
Published on Updated
Share Comments
Share Close Button

The first whistleblower complaint about President Donald Trump's phone call with the Ukrainian president led to Democrats' impeachment inquiry.

Attorneys representing the whistleblower whose complaint about President Donald Trump's call with the president of Ukraine set off a series of events culminating in an impeachment inquiry confirmed to NBC News Sunday that a second whistleblower has now come forward with information.

"I can confirm that my firm and my team represent multiple whistleblowers in connection to the underlying August 12, 2019, disclosure to the Intelligence Community Inspector General," attorney Andrew Bakaj told NBC News.

The July 25 phone call led a U.S. intelligence official to file a whistleblower complaint that set off a cascade of fast-moving events, ultimately leading to an impeachment inquiry into the president.

Trump has publicly maintained that the call was "absolutely perfect" and "totally appropriate."

A description of the call made public by the White House showed Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to look into why Ukraine's top prosecutor had apparently ended an investigation into a Ukrainian gas company that once employed former Vice President Joe Biden's son as a board member.

Text messages given to Congress Thursday and released by House Democrats suggest the call was part of a broader effort from Trump and his administration to pressure Ukraine.

The texts show U.S. ambassadors working to persuade Ukraine to publicly commit to investigating Trump's political opponents and explicitly linking the inquiry to whether Ukraine's president would be granted an official White House visit.

The messages offer the fullest picture to date of how top diplomats and Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani sought to advance Trump's goal of getting the Ukrainians to investigate both meddling in the 2016 election and Hunter Biden.

The new details on how Trump's pressure campaign on Ukraine unfolded came as the president publicly called for another foreign country — China — to probe his top political opponent.

Go to accessibility shortcuts
Share Comments

Read more

Trump orders investigation into alleged Jeffrey Epstein ties to Bill Clinton and major banks

US designates four European anti-fascist groups as terrorist organisations

US government shutdown ends after 43 days as Trump signs funding bill