The attorney for the unnamed whistle-blower appeared to respond to the comment a short time later, writing on Twitter that retaliating against the person is a “violation of federal law.”

President Trump on Monday said he was “trying to find out” the identity of the whistle-blower, though by law whistle-blowers are allowed anonymity.

IC WB UPDATE: The Intel Community Whistleblower is entitled to anonymity. Law and policy support this and the individual is not to be retaliated against. Doing so is a violation of federal law. — Andrew P. Bakaj (@AndrewBakaj) September 30, 2019

Trump’s comments about the whistle-blower were the latest in a string of angry reaction, both in tweets and comments, from the president. Just hours after he quoted a Fox News guest who said impeachment would cause a “Civil War-like fracture” in the US, President Trump suggested on Monday morning that House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff should be arrested for treason.


It appeared to be an escalation of a series of tweets on Sunday evening in which Trump demanded Schiff be “questioned at the highest level for fraud & treason” because of the way Schiff characterized Trump’s phone call with the Ukrainian president during a hearing with the acting director of national intelligence on Thursday.

Rep. Adam Schiff illegally made up a FAKE & terrible statement, pretended it to be mine as the most important part of my call to the Ukrainian President, and read it aloud to Congress and the American people. It bore NO relationship to what I said on the call. Arrest for Treason? — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2019

Trump had earlier called for Schiff’s resignation after the California Democrat likened Trump’s phone call to a mob shakedown and paraphrased the president’s words as he delivered his opening statement at the hearing on Thursday.

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Schiff’s committee is leading the investigation into a phone call between Trump and the president of Ukraine in which Trump asked Volodymyr Zelensky to look into former vice president Joe Biden, his political rival, days after holding up planned disbursement of military aid to the country.