Amid reports the whistleblower holds a political animus against the president, President Donald Trump is calling for the whistleblower to be revealed to expose that bias.
"The whistleblower should be revealed," Trump told reporters Sunday. "Because the whistleblower gave false information."
Trump claimed the media knows the whistleblower's identity and is withholding it because "he" is a Democratic operative who is being used to pursue impeachment.
"The whistleblower gave a very inaccurate report about my phone call," Trump said. "My phone call was perfecto. It was totally appropriate. He gave a report – he or she – but according to the newspapers it's a he.
"They think they know – they know who it is! You know who it is. You just don't want to report it. CNN knows who it is but you don't want to report it. And you'd be doing the public a service if you did."
Trump pointed to reports "certain of the media release information about a man they said was the whistleblower."
"I don't know if that's true or not," he added. "But what they said was he is an Obama person, that was involved with [former CIA Director John] Brennan, Susan Rice, which means Obama, but he was a big anti-Trump person. Hated Trump. They said terrible things.
"Now, I don't know if that was true or not, but that was reported by some of the media, so you'll have to find out.
"I don't know why the media's not on it."
The comments were followed by a Sunday tweet by Trump praising the outing of the alleged whistleblower by at least one conservative media outlet.
The whistleblower's lawyers neither confirmed nor denied the identity of their client, but issued a statement Sunday warning against publication of their client's identity.
"Any physical harm the individual and/or their family suffers as a result of disclosure means that the individuals and publications reporting such names will be personally liable for that harm," the statement reads. "Such behavior is at the pinnacle of irresponsibility and is intentionally reckless."