Michael Kaarhus
06:01 Friday, Sep. 27, AD 2019 GMT
Shangri-La
It flew right past almost everyone. But not me: The term whistleblower is properly used after an accused has been tried and convicted in a court of law. No one is a whistleblower unless someone is accused and convicted.
Whistleblower refers to a witness that provided evidence against someone that is later convicted, not against someone that is merely accused. The legal definition of the term is always tied to actual wrongdoing, not just to an accusation of wrongdoing:
whistleblower noun
whis·tle·blow·er | \ ˈhwi-səl-ˌblō-ər\
Legal Definition of whistleblower: an employee who brings wrongdoing by an employer or other employees to the attention of a government or law enforcement agency and who is commonly vested by statute with rights and remedies for retaliation (Webster’s)
So far, there is no whistleblower involved in the President Trump – President Zelensky phone conversation. That is because it has not been demonstrated that wrongdoing happened. The only thing that has been determined to have happened is a phone conversation. And apparently, an innocuous and cordial one.
The Dem-run media are professional slingers of terms. I doubt that they made a careless error in choosing the term whistleblower. I think that they are inferring that wrongdoing has already occurred, and that Trump is the wrongdoer. I think that the media are trying and convicting Trump in their own, kangaroo court. If Trump were to be convicted of a crime with respect to the phone conversation, then it would be correct to apply the term whistleblower to whomever the anonymous accuser is. But Trump has not even been formally accused of wrongdoing.
Meanwhile, back in the former USSR, the Ukrainian Foreign Minister denies that President Trump pressured President Zelensky to investigate Hunter Biden. Here is my transcript of part of a Vatican Radio newscast from Sept. 25, 2019 (link to Vatican Radio mp3). My transcript covers the newscast from 0h: 0m: 15s to 0h: 3m: 11s, with part of Linda Bordoni’s intro left out:
Linda Bordoni, Vatican Radio Correspondent: In the headlines this Wednesday, September the twenty-fifth, the Ukraine denies its President was involved in a political controversy Involving Donald Trump. ... In the Vatican, I’m Linda Bordoni.
The Ukraine has urged the United States to continue in its support for the country, as it continues to battle against pro-Russian separatists. The call comes as U.S. President Donald Trump faces an impeachment inquiry over allegations that he initially withheld hundreds of millions in aid to pressure Kiev to investigate political rival Joe Biden’s son, who is doing business in Ukraine. Stephan Voss reports:
Stephan Voss, Correspondent: Vlodimir Zelensky, the comedian who was only elected Ukraine’s leader in April, is already facing a political storm of international proportions. The forty-one year-old political novice is under pressure to reveal whether U.S. President Donald Trump pressured him to investigate political rival Joe Biden’s son, who is doing business in Ukraine amid corruption allegations. President Trump is facing an impeachment inquiry, because he is suspected of pressuring Zelensky over the summer to investigate Biden’s family. That happened while he was withholding nearly four hundred million dollars in military aid to the Eastern European nation. President Zelensky told reporters, however, that he expected U.S. support to continue.
He says, “It’s okay. We are ready for everything. We have an independent nation. We are prepared for everything.” He also makes clear that Ukraine continues to expect support from the United States. But he adds, “We don’t need just help. We are already a strong State. We just want the United States to always support Ukraine, and Ukraine’s course against aggression and war.” He referred to the ongoing battle against pro-Russian separatists in Eastern Ukraine that killed more than thirteen thousand people, as well as Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula. In a television interview over the weekend, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister denied President Zelensky was pressured to investigate Biden’s son. [my emphasis] U.S. President Trump also said the money was transferred to Ukraine, and he denied he had pressured Ukraine’s President. For Vatican News, I am Stephan Voss, reporting.
This looks to me like another nothing-burger. It looks like there is nothing to convict Trump of. If there was no wrongdoing, there will be no whistleblower, and the Dem media will be proven wrong in reporting that there is one.
