Iran Press/ America: The whistleblower whose revelations triggered an impeachment inquiry against US President Donald Trump now fears for his life, his lawyers said on Sunday.
Lawyer Andrew P Bakaj wrote to Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire and the lawmakers investigating Trump, alerting them to "serious concerns" he holds for the anonymous whistleblower's personal safety.
He cited Trump's barely veiled threats of capital punishment as a cause for concern.
Trump told a closed-door meeting of US diplomats on Friday that whoever gave compromising information to the whistleblower was "close to a spy," and that "spies and treason" used to be handled "a little differently than we do now."
"The fact that the President's statement was directed to 'the person that gave the whistleblower the information' does nothing to assuage our concerns for our client's safety," Bakaj wrote about Trump's comments.
"Moreover, certain individuals have issued a $50,000 [€46,000] 'bounty' for 'any information' relating to our client's identity. Unfortunately, we expect this situation to worsen, and to become even more dangerous for our client and any other whistleblowers, as Congress seeks to investigate this matter."
He called on leaders from both political parties to reaffirm their support for whistleblower protection and denounce retaliation.
"We further expect that political leaders from both parties condemn any intimidation against our client and others."
Trump repeated his attacks on the whistleblower on Sunday evening in a series of posts on Twitter.
He said he wanted to meet "my accuser," as well as "the person who illegally gave this information" to the whistleblower. "Was this person SPYING on the U.S. President? Big Consequences!" he wrote.
On July 25 a telephone call between Trump and Zelenskiy was made, the US President asked his counterpart to launch an investigation of Democratic presidential hopeful, Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, who had served on the board of a Ukrainian energy company.
The decision to launch a formal impeachment inquiry was triggered by allegations that Trump sought help from a foreign government in his reelection bid for 2020 election.
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