Whistleblower Attorneys: He Is ‘Entitled to Anonymity’

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Charlie Spiering

Attorneys for the “whistleblower” who raised the alarm about President Donald Trump’s conversation with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky lashed out against the president on Monday, insisting their client was “entitled” to anonymity.

“The Intel Community Whistleblower is entitled to anonymity,” attorney Andrew Bakaj wrote on Twitter. “Law and policy support this and the individual is not to be retaliated against. Doing so is a violation of federal law.”

The law is paramount and there are no exceptions for anyone,” Zaid added.

Bakaj is an attorney for the whistleblower, who has only been identified by the New York Times as a male CIA agent assigned to the White House.

Bakaj also previously worked for the State Department and Democratic senators Charles Schumer and Hillary Clinton and donated money to former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign in April of 2019.

Bakaj and Attorney Mark Zaid both work for the law firm Compass Rose Legal Group and represent the whistleblower as the pair have become instant resistance celebrities for their responses to President Trump.

Questions about the whistleblower’s complaint were raised after it was clear the intelligence community’s complaint form was revised to allow complaints featuring information from second-hand sources. Previously, first-hand eye witness sourcing was required.

Senator Lindsey Graham questioned the process and the whistleblower’s legal protections in an interview on Sunday.

“This is a sham, as far as I’m concerned,” he said in an interview on CBS News. “I want to know who told the whistle-blower about the phone call. I want to know why they changed the rules about whistle-blowers, not — the hearsay rule was changed just a short period of time before the complaint was filed.”

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