The whistleblower who said US President Donald Trump pressured Ukraine to investigate Democratic rival Joe Biden is a CIA officer and at one point was assigned to work at the White House, two sources familiar with the probe into his complaint confirmed yesterday.
The New York Times first identified the whistleblower as a CIA officer, which Reuters has independently confirmed.
Mark Zaid, a Washington lawyer who represents the whistleblower at the center of an impeachment inquiry into Trump, declined to confirm the identity or occupation of his client.
"Publishing details about the whistleblower will only lead to identification of someone, whether our client or the wrong person, as the whistleblower. This will place this individual in a much more dangerous situation, not only in their professional world but also their possible personal safety," Zaid told Reuters.
A CIA spokesman referred inquiries to the office of the Intelligence Community Inspector General, which declined to comment.
Democrats in the House of Representatives this week launched a formal impeachment inquiry into Trump, based largely on the whistleblower's complaint that Trump pressed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in a telephone call to investigate Biden and his son Hunter, who had business interests in Ukraine.
Pelosi accuses US Attorney General of going rogue
House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday accused US Attorney General William Barr of going "rogue" in the Justice Department's handling of a whistleblower report that President Donald Trump solicited a political favor from Ukraine's president that could help him get re-elected.
The Democratic House leader, who launched an impeachment inquiry on Tuesday against the Republican Trump, has accused the administration of trying to cover up the whistleblower complaint.
Democrats have criticized Barr for not recusing himself from matters related to the whistleblower complaint prompted by a July 25 call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
"He's gone rogue," Pelosi told MSNBC in an interview.
