Trump Reveals Impeachment Whistleblower's Name: A Violation Of Federal Laws

President Donald Trump broke federal law by retweeting the identity of the alleged whistleblower, whose report in August about his phone call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky ignited the impeachment inquiry that led to his impeachment on December 18.

Back in September, Trump revealed his attempts to unmask the anonymous whistleblower's identity. Some legal experts concur Trump did break the whistleblower law that protects whistleblowers from having their identities revealed in public. The whistleblower’s lawyers suggested Trump's admission he was trying to reveal the whistleblower's identity is evidence enough of Trump’s law-breaking retaliatory intent in violation of 5 U.S.C. § 2302 (b)(8)-(9).

Trump might also have violated federal whistleblower protections via his Twitterstorm on December 27, which many read as an attempt to name and shame the alleged whistleblower, said Christopher Alberto, a former federal prosecutor.

“Trump’s participation in publicizing the name of the whistleblower is a direct attack on our constitutional republic (and) national security,” tweeted Alberto. “He also violated the (whistleblower) protection act (and) his oath of office. His central goal is to intimidate others from speaking up.”

The tweet Alberto referred to took place close to midnight on December 27. At this time, Trump retweeted a post with the name of the alleged whistleblower. The retweet has since been deleted from the president's account. It remains unclear if Trump deleted his retweet, or if it was removed by a technical glitch Twitter said occurred on Friday.

Trump retweeted a message from a Twitter user with the handle, @Surfermom77, which the Associated Press says shows indications of being a Twitter bot or an automated account after a thorough investigation. The account tweeted more than 170,000 times since the account was activated in 2013. On average, Surfermom77 has posted 72 tweets a day, according to Nir Hauser, chief technology officer at VineSight, a technology firm that tracks online misinformation.

“That’s not something most humans are doing,” noted Hauser.

There's speculation @Surfermom77 might be a bot created by the Russian intelligence services.

Other legal experts blasted Trump for outing the whistleblower’s identity.

“Only in the era of Donald Trump could a lawful whistleblower be so disgustingly vilified for political purposes,” national security attorney Bradley Moss told LawandCrime.com.

Republicans that once were loud voices protesting violations of the whistelblower protection act are now eerily silent on Trump's assault on the law.

Former acting solicitor general Neal Katyal criticized Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) for his silence over Trump’s repeated attacks on the whistleblower. In 2015, Grassley and a group of Democratic and Republican senators founded the Whistleblower Protection Caucus.