12/29/19
President Donald Trump faces criticism from political opponents -- and queasiness even among some supporters -- for naming the alleged whistle-blower whose complaint triggered the congressional inquiry that resulted in his impeachment. A retweet late Friday to Trump’s 68 million Twitter followers identified a person it says is the whistle-blower. That could run afoul of two laws, said David Colapinto, a lawyer who represents whistle-blowers at law firm Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto LLP in Washington. “The president has a responsibility under the whistle-blower statute to ensure protection of the intelligence community” officials who report alleged wrongdoing, Colapinto said Sunday. Trump’s act was “willful violation of the law.” Colapinto’s colleague, attorney Stephen Kohn, wrote in the National Law Review on Friday that when Trump “signed onto the job of president, protecting intelligence community whistle-blowers became one of his few mandatory job duties.” Senator John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican and backer of Trump, said when asked in a CNN interview if he thinks it’s appropriate for the president to publicly identify the alleged whistle-blower, “I think we ought to follow the law.”
“No responsible government official or lawyer in the U.S. could credibly argue that someone who brings a complaint to the inspector general is not protected by the statute,” Colapinto said. That protection includes remaining anonymous, as well as being shielded from retaliation, he said. Trump has been edging toward identifying the whistle-blower. He’s previously questioned the person’s legitimacy and legal standing, called on media organizations to publish the person’s name -- as some conservative outlets have -- and even demanded to meet the whistle-blower himself. His late-Friday tweet was regarded as a provocation even by some officials within the White House, and appeared intended to create a public furor. “This person appears to have followed the whistleblower protection laws and ought to be heard out and protected,” Grassley said in the Oct. 1 statement. “We should always work to respect whistleblowers’ requests for confidentiality.” But the lack of a direct response to Trump’s most recent tweet has drawn criticism from Bakaj, one lawyers working for the whistle-blower. “I have worked with Senator Grassley’s staff in the past on whistle-blower matters -- an issue he has championed for decades. To say that his silence now is deafening is an understatement,” he said in a Saturday tweet. “This is a defining moment where legacies will either be solidified or destroyed.”
