White House adviser Ivanka Trump said the identity of the whistleblower, whose complaint sparked an impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump, is not particularly relevant. Speaking to the Associated Press, the 38-year-old businesswoman said that the person’s identity shouldn’t be part of the conversation.
"This is a third party who was not privy to the call and did not have firsthand information”, said Ivanka Trump, who is wrapping up a three-day visit to Morocco. “That is what was the catalyst for all of this discussion. But to me, it’s not particularly relevant aside from what the motivation behind all of this was”.
Ivanka noted that what is important is the man’s motivation, although she didn’t elaborate what motives the whistleblower may have had. Commenting on the impeachment investigation launched against her father, the White House adviser echoed the president’s stance that the inquiry is about “overturning the results of the 2016 election".
The complaint against Donald Trump centres on his call to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The whistleblower accused the president of forcing his counterpart to dig up dirt on the son of Joe Biden, his potential rival in the upcoming presidential election, promising Zelensky to provide military aid to Kiev. Trump denied the allegations and the White House even released the transcript of the call, which showed no misconduct on Trump’s part. However, this did not stop the Democrats from initiating an impeachment inquiry against the 45th president. They have accused him of abuse of power and colluding with a foreign nation to influence the US election.
Trump and the Republicans have pressured the media to reveal the identity of the whistleblower, who is reportedly a member of a US intelligence agency, with President Trump calling on him to testify publicly in the Congress
The whistleblower’s lawyer, Andrew Bakaj, said such statements endanger the person and his family, as well as US legislation protecting people exposing wrongdoing by government officials.