translated from Spanish: Second whistleblower emerges in Trump-Ukraine case

WASHINGTON (AP) — A second whistleblower points out that he has information about President Donald Trump’s dealings with Ukraine, which adds to the impeachment investigation surrounding the White House and could trigger more clues for Democrats in their inquiries about the behavior of the representative. Attorney Mark Zaid, who represents both whistleblowers, told The Associated Press in text messages that the second whistleblower has already spoken to the intelligence community’s internal control body and can corroborate information from the initial complaint. The paper alleges that Trump lounk Ukraine’s president to investigate the family of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, which led to a White House cover-up.

The new informant works in the intelligence community and has “first-hand knowledge” of key events, Zaid said The emergence of a second informant threatened to undermine Trump and his allies’ arguments for discrediting the original allegation. They have said that it has political motives, that it was improperly presented and have tried to discredit it as unreliable because it is based on second- or third-hand information. A draft of Trump’s phone call with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskiy, which spread the White House, already corroborated the central charge of the allegation that Trump tried to pressure Ukraine to investigate the Biden. The attempt was carried out even though there is no evidence of irregularities by the former Vice President or his son Hunter, who was on the board of directors of a Ukrainian gas company. Text messages from State Department officials revealed other details, including the fact that Ukraine was promised a visit with Trump in case his administration agreed to investigate the 2016 election and the gas company Burism.The representative Democrat Jim Himes, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said the presence of a second informant is indicative of a major shift within the government.” The president’s real problem is that his behavior finally reached a time when people are saying, ‘Enough!’,” Himes said.Democrats have focused the initial phase of their impeachment at the State Department. The Government’s Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Oversight and Reform committees have already interviewed Kurt Volker, a former special envoy to Ukraine who provided the text messages. At least two other witnesses have appearances scheduled for this week: Gordon Sondland, the US ambassador to the European Union, and Marie Yavonavitch, who abruptly left office as ambassador to Ukraine last May. Trump and his supporters refuse to have engaged in wrongdoing, but the White House has struggled to file a unified response. No government officials appeared on Sunday’s news programs to defend the ruling, while other Republicans focused solely on attacking Democrats. Some Republicans have hinted that Trump was only joking this week when he publicly called on China to investigate the Bidens.

Original source in Spanish