Sunny Hostin, a leftist co-host of ABC’s “The View,” made multiple false claims on Thursday as she interviewed Donald Trump Jr. and Kimberly Guilfoyle, falsely suggesting that Trump committed a felony by outing the Ukraine whistleblower and deceptively presenting to viewers the transcript of President Donald Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The first problematic exchange occured when Hostin asked Guilfoyle about whether she advised Trump tweet out the name of the alleged whistleblower. Multiple members of the media, including “The View,” have falsely claimed that Trump outed the whistleblower this week when he tweeted out the person’s name which was included in the title of a news article that he tweeted out.
Here’s the transcript of the interaction:
Hostin: Kimberly, you’re a lawyer, and we’ve known each other and you’re a former prosecutor, I mean did you advise your boyfriend that it is a federal crime to out a whistleblower?
Guilfoyle: I didn’t advise him that it was a federal crime…
Trump: Well it’s not a federal crime, it’s only a federal crime for the IG [Inspector General] to do it, that’s in the statute.
Hostin: But that’s not true, that’s a lie. That’s not true.
…
Hostin: Under U.S. Code § 1505 it, it, it is a crime
Trump: That’s not accurate. Just ask Rand Paul, he went into great detail on it the other [day].
Hostin: Well, my law degree says it is.
WATCH:
Sunny Hostin, leftist co-host of ABC’s “The View,” falsely claims that it was a federal crime for Donald Trump Jr to tweet out a news article that contained the name of the alleged whistleblower. pic.twitter.com/skLno12VVL
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) November 8, 2019
Experts say that Hostin’s claim is false.
Daily Mail U.S. Political Editor David Martosko noted on Thursday that the “federal Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989 includes one section about protecting the anonymity of whistle-blowers — and it only applies to the (permanent) United States Office of Special Counsel. There’s nothing in there about private citizens or anyone else.”
Today I learned the federal Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989 includes one section about protecting the anonymity of whistle-blowers–and it only applies to the (permanent) United States Office of Special Counsel. There’s nothing in there about private citizens or anyone else. pic.twitter.com/nTndDwm2jo
— David Martosko (@dmartosko) November 7, 2019
A report from Reuters on Thursday cited national security lawyer Kel McClanahan’s analysis of the Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection Act of 1998 (ICWPA):
That provision says the inspector general should not disclose the whistleblower’s identity without their consent, unless the watchdog determines that “such disclosure is unavoidable during the course of the investigation.”
Once the complaint is out of the inspector general’s hands the law does little to guarantee the whistleblower anonymity, said McClanahan, the executive director of National Security Counselors, a public interest law firm.
NPR reported on Wednesday that according to former “top federal government officials who worked in intelligence and national security” it is not a crime for President Trump to reveal the name of the alleged whistleblower.
“Similarly, if a news outlet, member of Congress or member of the public outed the whistleblower, legal experts said, no criminal law would be violated,” NPR reported.
Two experts that NPR cited said that it was not a crime:
- Robert Litt, former general counsel for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence under President Barack Obama: “If Trump thinks he knows the name, he can come out and say it, and he’s probably as protected as anyone is.”
- Dan Meyer, a lawyer and the former executive director of the intelligence community whistleblower program: “There is no overarching protection for the identity of the whistleblower under federal law. Congress has never provided that protection.”
Here’s the transcript of the second problematic set of claims that Hostin made:
Hostin: I want to talk about the the memo of the call cause I don’t believe it’s a transcript. In the memo of the call that was released from the White House between your father and the Ukraine president, your father said “I would like you to do us a favor though because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it” and we have the entire part part of the memo here.
The other thing, “there’s a lot of talk about Biden’s son that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great.” This is the basis of the impeachment inquiry. Why is that a sham?
WATCH:
Sunny Hostin, leftist co-host of ABC’s “The View,” makes multiple false claims about the transcript of President Donald Trump’s phone call with Ukraine pic.twitter.com/u2s0gQUBYV
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) November 8, 2019
The transcript that Hostin showed was deceptively edited, cutting out 489 words, to falsely suggest that President Trump engaged in a quid pro quo.
Here’s is a pic of the actual transcript provided by the White House that shows that 489 words that “The View” cut out in order to falsely suggest that Trump engaged in a quid pro quo pic.twitter.com/JQIOqKU51E
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) November 8, 2019
This tactic was employed by numerous media left-wing personalities following the release of the transcript, including MSNBC’s Katy Tur, CNN’s Brianna Keilar, and former Fox News anchor Shepard Smith.
MSNBC’s Katy Tur, CNN’s Brianna Keilar, and Fox News’ Shepard Smith all lie about the Ukraine transcript
“I would like you to do us a favor” was in reference to helping DOJ with the origin of the 2016 Russia probe
All 3 skip over 548 words to falsely connect it to Biden pic.twitter.com/mHVlG9nxQm
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) September 25, 2019
Here is the portion of the transcript that “The View” selectively edited, words that appear in bold were cut out by “The View”:
Trump: I would like you to do us a favor though because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it. I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine, they say Crowdstrike… I guess you have one of your wealthy people… The server, they say Ukraine has it. There are a lot of things that went on, the whole situation. I think you’re surrounding yourself with some of the same people. I would like to have the Attorney General call you or your people and I would like you to get to the bottom of it. As you saw yesterday, that whole nonsense ended with a very poor performance by a man named Robert Mueller, an incompetent performance, but they say a lot of it started with Ukraine. Whatever you can do, it’s very important that you do it if that’s possible.
Zelenskyy: Yes it is very important for me and everything that you just mentioned earlier. For me as a President, it is very important and we are open for any future cooperation. We are ready to open a new page on cooperation in relations between the United States and Ukraine. For that purpose, I just recalled our ambassador from United States and he will be replaced by a very competent and very experienced ambassador who will work hard on making sure that our two nations are getting closer. I would also like and hope to see him having your trust and your confidence and have personal relations with you so we can cooperate even more so. I will personally tell you that one of my assistants spoke with Mr. Giuliani just recently and we are hoping very much that Mr. Giuliani will be able to travel to Ukraine and we will meet once he comes to Ukraine. I just wanted to assure you once again that you have nobody but friends around us. I will make sure that I surround myself with the best and most experienced people. I also wanted to tell you that we are friends. We are great friends and you Mr. President have friends in our country so we can continue our strategic partnership. I also plan to surround myself with great people and in addition to that investigation, I guarantee as the President of Ukraine that all the investigations will be done openly and candidly.. That I can assure you.
Trump: Good because I heard you had a prosecutor who was very good and he was shut down and that’s really unfair. A lot of people are talking about that, the way they shut your very good prosecutor down and you had some very bad people involved. Mr. Giuliani is a highly respected man. He was the mayor of New York City, a great mayor, and I would like him to call you. I will ask him to call you along with the Attorney General. Rudy very much knows what’s happening and he is a very capable guy. If you could speak to him that would be great. The former ambassador from the United States, the woman, was bad news and the people she was dealing with in the Ukraine were bad news so I just want to let you know that. The other thing, There’s a lot of talk about Biden’s son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it… It sounds horrible to me.