Late at night on Friday, Dec. 27, Donald Trump retweeted a tweet on Twitter that contains the alleged name of the anonymous whistleblower, as well as suggested the person committed perjury, as reported by The Washington Post. This whistleblower, as a quick review, had concerns about Trump’s July 25 infamous phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. In August, the whistleblower filed an official complaint about the incident. This complaint had been key in the impeachment hearings, which resulted in Trump actually being impeached.
Trump being Trump has repeatedly stressed that the whistleblower should be revealed, in spite of the story that, as The Daily Beast reports, numerous people close to the president have told him not to do that. Some right-wing outlets and social media users have floated theories as to who it is, but overall, the person’s identity has been kept anonymous—as it should be.
Trump brought things to a whole new level when he retweeted a post that purports to identify the alleged whistleblower around midnight on Friday. Adding to the frenzy is the fact that, as of Saturday morning on Dec. 28, some Twiter users said they couldn’t access the message at all on Trump’s Twitter feed; had it been deleted? Un-retweeted? Was it a hoax? Were they blocked?
Twitter eventually answered this quandary, explaining that the seemingly missing post was due to a glitch. Basically, a fluke software bug made some tweets seemingly disappear on millions of user profiles. CNN reports that Twitter confirmed to the news outlet that Trump’s profile was among those affected.
Remember: Trump has about 68 million followers on Twitter.
Notably, Twitter has clarified that Trump’s retweet of the alleged whistleblower’s name does not violate the platform’s rules. What would violate its rules? Information like the person’s address or phone number. What about other social media sites? BuzzFeed News learned from Facebook that naming the alleged whistleblower violates its policies.
Why is the whistleblower’s anonymity so important? Protecting whistleblower anonymity hasn’t generally been—and shouldn’t be—a partisan issue in the past. Revealing the whistleblower could violate federal protection laws. It also shouldn’t really matter one way or the other, as others have testified and corroborated the most important points. What’s more, whistleblower protections encourage others to come forward in the future without fearing retaliation or harm.
If you're curious about who Trump retweeted, you're not alone. As the Associated Press reports, the account is user ‘@Surfermom77’ who identifies itself as a woman named Sophia who lives in California and is a Trump supporter. As the AP reports, the user appears to tweet a rapid 72 tweets per day on average, including attacks on Democrats. The profile also has reportedly used a series of stock images as a profile avatar. Basically, the account appears to be a bot. The AP reports that its attempts to reach the person behind the profile over the phone have been unsuccessful.
Where to go from here? In the bigger picture, Trump, as was covered in great detail here at Daily Kos, was impeached by the House on Dec. 18. The next big step will likely occur in January 2020, when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi may send the articles of impeachment to the Senate, and from there, the Senate deliberates acquittal or removal in a trial. Some have argued that Pelosi should hold back on sending the articles of impeachment to the Senate, which makes the timeline a little more blurry.
Given that Trump has endlessly demanded the whistleblower be identified and investigated, and that even his son, Donald Trump Jr., has shared information containing the alleged whistleblower’s name, none of this is terribly surprising. But it is legitimately concerning.
Update: As of Sunday evening, it appears the ‘Surfermom77’ Twitter account has disappeared.