Ukraine Whistleblower's Attorney Blasts Conservatives Who Accuse Him of Liberal Partisanship, Gives Examples Where He Represented Republicans
The attorney acting for the whistleblower who first filed a complaint about President Donald Trump's conduct towards Ukraine called the accusations by Republicans and conservatives that he is motivated by a personal belief in liberal politics "a joke."
"It's a joke for anyone to say I'm on the right or the left," Mark Zaid, who represents the unidentified CIA whistleblower, said on the Just Ask the Questions podcast and gave multiple examples of where he had represented Republicans in the past.
Among those were CIA employees giving evidence before the House Select Committee on Benghazi and the House Intelligence Committee.
"So I was representing basically all the Republicans' interests at that moment. At least, that was their interpretation. I was just representing clients," Zaid said.
He also pointed out that he represented the RNC and the conservative outlet Daily Caller on issues relating to Hillary Clinton's emails, as well as Republican members of Congress, including the late Walter Jones of North Carolina.
"In fact, when I sued the late Congressman [Jack] Murtha, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, back in 2006—and Sean Hannity loved the fact that I did that and praised me when I was on his show Hannity & Colmes—Glenn Greenwald, the bastion of the ultra-left, slammed me for saying I was being paid for by Karl Rove and I was only out to stop the anti-war movement.
"And now the right says I'm being paid by [George] Soros."
The whistleblower represented by Zaid is one of multiple people from inside the administration to make a complaint about Trump. It was the initial complaint filed to the intelligence Inspector General that helped kick off the current House impeachment inquiry.
Among the issues flagged by the whistleblower was a call between Trump and Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskiy on July 25. During that call, Trump asked Zelenskiy for a favor and to open two investigations.
One was into spurious corruption allegations against former Vice President Joe Biden—a leading candidate for the 2020 Democratic nomination—and his son Hunter Biden, who sat on the board of a Ukrainian gas company.
And the other was into a widely-debunked conspiracy theory that the DNC conspired with the cybersecurity company CrowdStrike to frame Russia for election meddling, and that the evidence is held on a server in Ukraine.
This week, Bill Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat to Ukraine, testified to Congress that he thought Trump was dangling a potential White House meeting for Zelenskiy and withholding military aid from the country as leverage to ensure the investigations were opened and publicly announced.
It is evidence of a quid pro quo between the Trump and Zelenskiy regarding the investigations. Trump denies any wrongdoing and insists there was no quid pro quo.
House Democrats accuse Trump of abusing the power of his office by soliciting the interference by a foreign government in the 2020 presidential election. Trump denies any wrongdoing.
