A second whistleblower with firsthand knowledge of United States President Donald Trump’s dealings with Ukraine has spoken to the intelligence community’s internal watchdog office, his lawyer Mark Zaid told ABC News on Sunday. The whistleblower, an intelligence officer himself, spoke to internal watchdog office chief Michael Atkinson, Zaid said.

The first whistleblower had revealed Trump’s conversations with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in which the US president had asked his Ukrainian counterpart to investigate Democratic presidential election frontrunner Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden for alleged corruption. Trump, who released the transcript of the conversation last week, refuted allegations that his actions had been inappropriate.

Trump is now facing an impeachment inquiry initiated by US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, which he has called a “witch hunt”.

Joe Biden, for his part, said last week that Trump had done something “really, really, really stupid” one year before the next presidential elections.

Zaid said on Sunday that both whistleblowers have full protection of the law from being fired. While the first whistleblower has spoken before the US Congress, the second has not yet done so, Zaid said.

Asked what he had told Zelensky during their phone conversation on July 25, Trump said on October 3: “Well, I would think that if they were honest about it, they would start a major investigation into the Bidens.”

Trump claimed the decision before the Ukranians was simple. “They should investigate the Bidens,” he said again. “So I would say that President Zelensky, if it were me, I would recommend that they start an investigation into the Bidens because nobody has any doubt that they weren’t crooked. That was a crooked deal one hundred percent.”

Later in the day, the president tweeted that it was his duty to investigate alleged corruption “and that would include asking, or suggesting, other countries to help us out”.

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