Whistleblower's lawyer slams Don Jr. for putting his client 'at risk of serious harm'

The lawyer for the whistleblower at the center of the House impeachment inquiry slammed Donald Trump Jr. on Wednesday for tweeting out a story from a pro-Trump site purportedly revealing the whistleblower’s name.

“Identifying any name for the whistleblower will simply place that individual and their family at risk of serious harm,” attorney Mark Zaid told CNN. “We will not confirm or deny any name that is published but we will note publication does nothing other than show the desperation of a partisan crowd to deflect from the substance of the whistleblower complaint.”

“It most certainly will not relieve the President of the need to address the substantive allegations, all of which have been substantially proven to be true.”

The statement came after Donald Trump’s eldest son tweeted out a link to the white supremacist pro-Trump site Breitbart. The Breitbart link forwards a conspiracy theory linking the whistleblower to earlier investigations into Trump’s Russian connections. The link and Trump Jr.’s tweet cite a name without evidence that the person is in fact the whistleblower.

“The White House says the president nor any senior administration official was aware in advance that the president’s eldest son was going to tweet out the name of the alleged whistleblower,” reporter Yashar Ali noted.

But Trump Jr. told Fox News just yesterday that his father calls him regularly to critique the content of his tweets.

“Every once in a while I get that call, like, ‘Hey, you’re getting a little hot on social,'” Trump Jr. said.

As witnesses testifying before the House impeachment inquiry have continued to verify and validate the whistleblower’s concerns about Trump pressuring Ukraine to look into former Vice President Joe Biden, Republicans have upped their attacks on the whistleblower.

At Trump’s rally in Kentucky on Monday night, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) called on the media to expose the whistleblower’s identity.

“I say tonight to the media: do your job and print his name,” said Paul.

The public demand echoed previous attacks and complaints about the whistleblower from Trump and other Republican officeholders.

Republicans have persisted in their stance against the whistleblower despite a series of violent attacks and threats that have been inspired by Trump since he took office.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.