Donald Trump Supporters Wrongly Identified Whistleblower, Says Report
Donald Trump continues to call for the identity of the whistleblower that sounded the alarm on his alleged bribing of Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky, which recently led to R. David Edelman, a former staffer in Barack Obama’s White House, being identified as such. Many right-wing media outlets reportedly posted Edelman’s name as the purported whistleblower, which led to social media sites removing posts with the name.
Raw Story reports that Edelman could not be the Ukraine whistleblower because he left the White House in January 2017 — two and a half year’s before Trump’s July phone call with Zelensky, in which he is accused of using foreign aid as leverage to pressure Zelensky to dig up dirt on Joe Biden and his son, Hunter.
According to Edelmen, the outing of his identity led to many threats.
“There were people threatening real physical harm, alluding to the fact that I will not live very long. That was obviously upsetting for my family.”
Photos of Edelman’s face circulated on Twitter Thursday and gained tens of thousands of retweets. The photo was allegedly taken following the 2016 presidential election results, although social media posts incorrectly described the picture as Obama staffers reacting to Trump’s first visit to the White House.
“It had my face circled, and it said something to the effect of, ‘Here is your alleged Ukraine whistleblower,'” Edelman said.
As The Inquisitr reported, House Republicans produced a list of witnesses they would like to hear from on Saturday, including the anonymous whistleblower. House Democrats are required to approve all Republican requests, however, and they are not expected to grant the one for the whistleblower.
Although Chair of the House Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff, previously revealed that he wanted to hear the whistleblower’s testimony, he changed his mind after Trump’s attacks on the individual’s credibility as well as other first-hand accounts of the whistleblower’s complaints, which Schiff believes renders such testimony unnecessary.
Statement of November 6, 2019, Concerning the Suspected Identity of the Whistleblower pic.twitter.com/qMBRuLALI8
— Andrew P. Bakaj ?? ?? (@AndrewBakaj) November 6, 2019
Per Global News, Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter and senior adviser, recently told the Associated Press that the identity of the whistleblower is “not particularly relevant.” According to Ivanka, the whistleblower’s motives are more important than their name, and they shouldn’t need to be a “substantive part of the conversation.”
The 38-year-old businesswoman also used the AP interview to touch on Trump’s belief that the impeachment probe is politically motivated and aims to overturn the results of the 2016 election.
“Basically since the election, this has been the experience that our administration and our family has been having,” she said. “Rather than wait under a year until the people can decide for themselves based on his record and based on his accomplishments, this new effort has commenced.”
