Sean Hannity and Fox News Introduce New Whistleblower to Discredit Ukraine Whistleblower Over GoFundMe Campaign
The unnamed intelligence community whistleblower whose original complaint triggered the House impeachment inquiry now has competition: a new "whistleblower" produced by Fox News.
On Tuesday, Fox News started promoting their agenda against the Ukraine whistleblower with allegations of improper fundraising through the website GoFundMe, reports Media Matters.
Sean Hannity also promoted the new whistleblower complaint on his radio show, then pushed an upcoming interview with the attorney involved on his TV show.
The attorney in question said it's "not about politics for my client—it's whistleblower-on-whistleblower."
Traditionally, a whistleblower is a person who exposes secretive information or activity that is deemed illegal, unethical or not correct within a private or public organization.
For the original Ukraine whistleblower, the law required that they be "[a]n employee of an element of the intelligence community, an employee assigned or detailed to an element of the intelligence community, or an employee of a contractor to the intelligence community."
The Inspector General of the Intelligence Community (IGIC) confirmed the original whistleblower was such an employee, detailee, or contractor.
The law also required that the Ukraine whistleblower provide a complaint or information with respect to an "urgent concern."
This is defined, in relevant part, as "a serious or flagrant problem, abuse, violation of the law or Executive order, or deficiency relating to the funding, administration, or operation of an intelligence activity within the responsibility and authority of the Director of National Intelligence involving classified information, but does not include differences of opinions concerning public policy matters."
A whistleblower is not required in order to contact the IGIC. This complaint was about a GoFundMe campaign, something accessible to the public, so protecting an anonymous person to make that complaint—a claim that would not be filed under "secretive information"—seems unnecessary.
The new complainant's attorney claimed that donations to the GoFundMe for the original whistleblower's legal defense constitute a "gift" to a government official "because of his prior status, authority, or duties associated with the employee's federal position" with the National Security Council.
There is no official claim and nothing filed from the Fox News whistleblower, just a two-page letter from their attorney with complaints that so far have no evidence.
In this case, the Fox News whistleblower—who was described as a "holder of a top-secret SCI security clearance and has served in government"—appeared to be unhappy with how the Ukraine whistleblower was raising money, so his attorney wrote a letter to the IGIC and Fox News has used that letter to cast doubt.
Fox's own online report shows that the GoFundMe page declares "donations will only be accepted from U.S. citizens." The original whistleblower's attorney, Andrew Bakaj, also told Fox that all fundraising activities "have complied with federal laws," adding, "Should any governmental agency properly inquire we would, of course, cooperate."
