A conspiratorial article in The Federalist falsely claiming that until recently, intelligence community whistleblowers were required to have “firsthand knowledge” of wrongdoing to file a complaint is being used by other conservative media outlets, Republican members of Congress, and the president himself in desperate attempts to discredit a whistleblower complaint that is at the heart of an impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump.
Trump is currently facing an impeachment inquiry in the U.S. House of Representatives following the revelation that he pressured the president of Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden. The allegations against Trump stem from an anonymous whistleblower complaint submitted by a member of the intelligence community. The Trump administration attempted to prevent Congress from accessing the complaint, even though the law required it, but then relented and released the damning report.
Trump defenders in conservative media have pushed a number of misleading narratives about the complaint, and an article published on September 27 by Federalist co-founder Sean Davis is the latest flashpoint in right-wing attempts to spin the allegations in a favorable light to Trump.