'Money-making enterprise': Intelligence officer files complaint over whistleblower donations
The whistleblower who spurred impeachment proceedings against President Trump is now the subject of a complaint that says the official may be soliciting illegal donations. The complaint was filed last week by an intelligence officer to the Intelligence Community inspector general, focusing on a GoFundMe page for the whistleblower that has raised more than $227,000.
According to a letter sent by the law firm Tully Rinckey PLLC, their client alleges donations from roughly 6,000 individuals "clearly constitute" gifts to a current intelligence official, which are restricted by statute. Because many of the donors are anonymous, the complaint asks Inspector General of the Intelligence Community Michael Atkinson to investigate whether any "foreign citizen or agent of a foreign government" gave money. The complaint also said the whistleblower's lawyers may be abusing their client's access to classified information. "My client believes ... that the federal employee you are protecting and their attorneys apparently have strategically weaponized their alleged whistleblowing activities into a very lucrative money-making enterprise using a charity incorporated under a different name than the trade name it is using for fund-raising purposes, which would appear to my client to be a clear abuse of the federal employee's authority and access to classified information," Anthony Gallo, the managing partner of Tully Rinckey, said in the letter sent on Nov. 8.
The person who filed the new complaint remains anonymous, but Tully Rinckey described their client to Fox News as someone who has served in government and holds a top-secret security clearance. "This isn’t about politics, it is about ethics and ensuring our intelligence officials aren’t collecting cash to pay for their expenses from anonymous or foreign intelligence agencies," Gallo told the Washington Examiner. "We are merely laying out the facts for the IG to look into this." Mark Zaid, the whistleblower's lead attorney, did not respond to the Washington Examiner's request for comment.
