a second whistleblower has come forward with information about trump. mark zaid, says his team rmt respects a second person who works in the intelligence community. he says his client has firsthand knowledge backing claims by the first whistleblower, who raised the alarm between mr. trump and zelensky. this is likely to undercut republicans who called the first whistleblower s claims hearsay. the first whistleblower claimed the president abused his official powers, digging up dirt on joe biden. and the white house tried to cover that up. the president has denied doing anything improper. cnn s jeremy diamond has more from the white house. reporter: there is now a second whistleblower from within
the alarm between mr. trump and zelensky. this is likely to undercut republicans who called the first whistleblower s claims hearsay. the first whistleblower claimed the president abused his official powers, digging up dirt on joe biden. and the white house tried to cover that up. the president has denied doing anything improper. cnn s jeremy diamond has more from the white house. reporter: there is now a second whistleblower from within the intelligence community, who has also raised concerns about president trump s call with the ukrainian president. the first whistleblower set off an impeachment inquiry from house democrats. now, also representing the second whistleblower. one of the attorneys says in a statement, i can confirm my firm and my team have multiple whistleblowers in connection to the august 12th, 2019 disclosure to the intelligence community inspector general. the second whistleblower has not
4:30 eastern time. we start with the latest in the impeachment inquiry. a second whistleblower has come forward with information about president trump. and an attorney confirming his team represents a second person who he says works in the intelligence community. he says his client has firsthand knowledge backing claims by the first whistleblower, who raised the alarm between mr. trump and zelensky. this is likely to undercut republicans who called the first whistleblower s claims hearsay. the first whistleblower claimed the president abused his official powers, digging up dirt on joe biden. and the white house tried to cover that up. the president has denied doing anything improper. cnn s jeremy diamond has more from the white house. reporter: there is now a second whistleblower from within the intelligence community, who has also raised concerns about president trump s call with the
but it is our duty to investigate if we think there was interference in the election of 2016. i think everyone recognizes that governments have an obligation, indeed a duty to ensure that elections happen with integrity, without interference from any government, whether that s the ukrainian government or any other. reporter: so, fred, you might have missed a couple words there. joe biden, hunter biden, investigation into political rivals. what the crux of this impeachment inquiry is actually about. of course he s talking here about this theory that ukraine was parted of the interference into the 2016 election but that is not what the impeachment inquiry is about. it is about the fact that the president of the united states asked another foreign leader for help digging up dirt on a potential political rival, something he did again on the south lawn earlier this week. so it s interesting to see here picking and choosing as they try to defend the president during this time. all right,
can we all get on the phone to make sure i advise z correctly as to what he should be saying. want to make sure we get this done right. and then there s the career diplomat, a man by the name of bill taylor. this is a pretty significant moment. he s texting back and forth with gordon sondland, who is the u.s. ambassador to the eu. he was appointed by the president to be the ambassador there to the eu. and bill taylor here, this is the significant moment. when he starts to raise this concern that perhaps the president could be doing this to the withholding of money to the ukraine because of political reasons. he says, and this is taylor now, as i said on the phone, i think it s crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign. and then i think the timing here is significant. that text message that bill taylor sends is at 12:47 a.m.