Fox News host Laura Ingraham apologized Thursday after falsely stating that a lawyer for the intelligence community whistleblower previously represented leading Democratic figures.
Ms. Ingraham said the previous evening on her primetime opinion program that Mark Zaid, an attorney for the whistleblower that prompted Democrats to launch an impeachment inquiry into President Trump last week, previously represented Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer of New York and former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
Mr. Zaid took issue with Ms. Ingraham afterward and said that she had likely mistaken him for Andrew P. Bakaj, a co-counsel for the whistleblower who had interned for Mr. Schumer and Mrs. Clinton while in college nearly 20 years earlier.
“The partisans are trying to smear the legal team as some liberal opposition. We are anything but that. I’ve never been anything other than registered Independent & proud of it,” Mr. Zaid said on Twitter.
“I go after every Administration, regardless of who holds political office or party,” said Mr. Zaid, noting that he previously worked closely with Republicans including Rep. Devin Nunes of California and former congressman Trey Gowdy of South Carolina.
Mr. Ingraham acknowledged on-air later Thursday that she had confused the whistleblower’s two lawyers.
“I was mistaking Mark for another attorney representing the attorney named Andrew Bakaj, who just worked for Clinton and Schumer. So it was a different lawyer,” said Ms. Ingraham.
“I apologize for that mixup,” she added.
Mr. Bakaj did not immediately return a message requesting comment. He interned for Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Schumer in 2001, according to his LinkedIn profile. He subsequently worked as a law clerk for the Department of Justice, then as an investigator for the Department of Defense and CIA inspectors general before entering private practice, according to his profile.
Democrats controlling the House of Representatives initiated an impeachment inquiry last week after the Trump administration tried to block members of Congress from viewing the whistleblower’s complaint. The White House subsequently released a rough transcript of a July telephone call that triggered the complaint, and it shows that the president had asked his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, to investigate 2020 Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joseph R. Biden.
Mr. Trump reiterated his request Thursday morning, asking Ukraine as well as China to investigate Mr. Biden and his son, Hunter.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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