WASHINGTON _ President Donald Trump retweeted on Friday night, and deleted by morning, a social media post that named the alleged whistleblower whose complaint triggered the congressional inquiry that resulted in his impeachment this month.
The posting, made shortly before midnight, identified a person it said was the whistleblower. That person first alerted members of Congress to Trump's conduct in his July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in a nine-page memorandum.
The tweet was from an account dubbed "Sophia," or @Surfermom77, who describes herself as living in California and a "100% Trump supporter." By Saturday afternoon that account, which posts a variety of pro-Trump and anti-Democratic material, had been "temporarily restricted" by the site. Screen shots of the deleted tweet continued to circulate on Twitter.
The White House didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump, who has 68 million followers on Twitter, has posted about the whistleblower multiple times over the months and suggested in comments to reporters that he would like to unmask or face the individual.
"Like every American, I deserve to meet my accuser," Trump tweeted in September.
On Thursday Trump also retweeted a link to a Dec. 3 article from the conservative Washington Examiner newspaper that carried the name of the alleged whistleblower. That posting hasn't been removed.
Attorney Andrew Bakaj, who represents the whistleblower, lamented in a tweet on Saturday that U.S. lawmakers who in the past have championed the rights of whistleblowers, including Iowa Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, have shown "deafening" silence recently.
"This is a defining moment where legacies will either be solidified or destroyed," Bakaj said on Twitter.
The Washington Post and CNN initially reported that Trump deleted the tweet with the whistleblower's identity.
Trump late Friday shared on Twitter a photograph showing a sign reading "Bernie 2020" and promising "free sh-t," along with an image of what appeared to be dog feces. That tweet also was removed and the original account had been suspended as of Saturday.
