Years after a 2019 impeachment furor aimed at President Donald Trump, new facts have slowly emerged about the alleged whistleblower whose complaint sparked the Democrat-led effort, including through emails, testimony, and newly-declassified memos which shine a light on the true origins of the saga.

Memos declassified by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard at the request of Just the News investigators for the intelligence community inspector general who first handled the CIA analyst's complaint flagged him for having a "potential for bias," elicited an apology from him for misleading the probe about his prior contact with staffers on the Democrat-led House Intelligence Committee, criticized GOP congressmen, asked to hide his complaint from Republicans on the committee, and more.

The watchdog’s investigators were also acutely aware the whistle-blower's allegations were based solely on second-hand or third-hand accounts about what Trump was alleged to have done and had worked on his whistle-blower efforts with a witness whose name was redacted and who told investigators that he was connected to disgraced FBI agent Peter Strzok and that he had co-authored the flawed intelligence community assessment on alleged Russian meddling in 2016.

The new memos also laid out multiple potential biases tied to Eric Ciaramella’s Democratic registration, his work for Joe Biden, his knowledge of corruption-related discussions on Ukraine, his view that he had been pushed out of the Trump National Security Council (NSC) because of "right wing bloggers," and more — some of which were never made public.

The revelations in the memos are the most explosive — but not the only — revelations about the whistle-blower that have emerged in recent years, with many of the revelations only becoming public months or years after the Ukraine-related impeachment effort against Trump. Ciaramella’s key role in pushing the Biden-led Obama Administration efforts in Ukraine did not fully emerge until after the failed Trump impeachment effort.

Ciaramella did not respond to a request for comment sent to him through the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where he is listed as the Ukraine Initiative Director for the Russia and Eurasia Program.

Intel watchdog transcripts from 2019 impeachment may be declassified

Real Clear Investigations first identified Ciaramella as the whistle-blower in 2019. The declassified memos provide further evidence pointing to Ciaramella as the whistle-blower.

Ciaramella had been listed as the Director for Baltic and Eastern European Affairs on the Obama NSC and as having been affiliated with the Interagency Policy Committee — a task force created to advise the Obama White House on whether Ukraine was cleaning up its endemic corruption and deserved more Western foreign aid.

Judicial Watch and GOP Senate investigators later released White House visitor logs detailing Ciaramella’s visits and meetings at the Obama White House, including ones related to Ukraine.

IRS whistle-blowers revealed that the FBI verified the authenticity of Hunter Biden’s laptop by November 2019 — in the middle of the Ukraine impeachment effort, and nearly a year before the laptop emerged publicly and the infamous Hunter Biden laptop letter was written. The laptop contained a raft of evidence on Hunter Biden’s shady dealings in Ukraine — and Joe Biden’s apparent knowledge of some of it. Nonetheless, the left-leaning mainstream media followed Biden's narrative that the laptop was "Russian disinformation" until months after the 2020 election.

The GOP-led House Intelligence Committee said in late March 2026 that it had voted in favor of releasing two 2019 transcripts from closed-door hearings with former Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson which had focused on the Ukraine whistle-blower. The committee said that “one transcript would be released to the ODNI for classification review, and then subsequently released to the public by the Committee with the second unclassified transcript.”

“The great deal of widespread speculation about the Atkinson classified hearing transcript is indicative of the American people’s complete and warranted mistrust of the Intelligence Community,” Chairman Rick Crawford said last month. “In far too many instances, the IC hides behind the veil of overclassification. Sometimes sunlight is the best disinfectant.”

The transcripts have not been released yet. 

Small bits of Ciaramella’s biases emerged in 2019, but nothing close to full picture

Then-ICIG Atkinson wrote in August 26, 2019 that “although the ICIG’s preliminary review identified some indicia of an arguable political bias on the part of the Complainant in favor of a rival political candidate, such evidence did not change my determination that the complaint relating to the urgent concern ‘appears credible,’ particularly given the other information the ICIG obtained during its preliminary review.”

The newly-declassified memos indicate this conclusion prompted Ciaramella to reach back out to the intelligence community watchdog’s investigators.

“On September 26, 2019, at approximately 8:45 a.m., Complainant contacted writer via secure line,” one memo says. “Complainant had concerns over wording in letter from ICIG to DNI [Joseph] Maguire, specific to ‘indicia of arguable political bias.’ Complainant expressed concern that he/she had someone indicated to writer during interview of support for a particular political candidate, which would not have been correct or intentional.”

Media leaks appeared to resemble a limited hangout on Ciaramella’s biases. “Breaking — A source familiar with the investigation prompted by the whistle-blower tells me that the ‘indicia of bias of an arguable political bias on the part’ of the whistle-blower referred to by the Intel Community IG, is that the whistle-blower is a Registered Democrat,” CNN host Jake Tapper tweeted in early October 2019.

But Ciaramella’s Democratic registration was by no means the only nor the most significant indicator of bias. The Washington Examiner soon reported a few days later that the concerns about bias weren’t just about Ciaramella’s Democratic registration, but about his professional relationship with an unnamed Democratic presidential candidate — closer to the possibility of Ciaramella’s biases, but still not close to the full picture.

“Under questioning from Republicans during last Friday’s impeachment inquiry interview with Atkinson, the inspector general revealed that the whistle-blower's possible bias was not that he was simply a registered Democrat,” the outlet wrote. “It was that he had a significant tie to one of the Democratic presidential candidates currently vying to challenge President Trump in next year’s election.”

“The IG said [the whistle-blower] worked or had some type of professional relationship with one of the Democratic candidates,” one source told the outlet. “The IG said the whistleblower had a professional relationship with one of the 2020 candidates,” a second source told the outlet.

“What [Atkinson] said was that the whistle-blower self-disclosed that he was a registered Democrat and that he had a prior working relationship with a current 2020 Democratic presidential candidate,” a third source told the outlet. The outlet wrote that “all three sources said Atkinson did not identify the Democratic candidate with whom the whistle-blower had a connection” and so “it is unclear what the working or professional relationship between the two was.”

Ciaramella’s connections to Biden — and his role in the exact Ukraine controversies which were the subject of the Ukraine impeachment effort — were not revealed during the impeachment saga.

Ciaramella’s close links to Biden and his Ukraine efforts are now clearer

The Washington Post wrote a lengthy article in October 2024 — just before the election between Trump and then-Vice President Kamala Harris. The outlet said that two of Atkinson’s investigators “interviewed the analyst, his supervisors, and a few of the sources mentioned in the complaint to corroborate his account and confirm that his job afforded him access to the information in the report” and that “they asked the analyst how someone might attack his credibility.”

“The analyst recalled telling them that he was a registered Democrat, though he had never donated to a political candidate or attended a campaign event,” the outlet wrote. “As part of his official duties, he had interacted with Biden, when he was vice president, and with Trump. He doubted either of them knew his name.”

This did not come close to telling the full story of Ciaramella’s role in Ukraine policy and ties to Biden.

The Kyiv Post had reported in June 2016 that former Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk was traveling to the U.S. capital to meet with then-Vice President Biden. “While in Washington, the Popular Front leader plans to discuss the current results and future objectives of Ukrainian reforms with authoritative experts and specialists,” Yatsenyuk’s press secretary said at the time. Yatsenyuk’s Facebook page posted a photo of himself with Biden on June 28, 2016 — with Ciaramella also in the picture at the meeting. Biden’s vice presidential account also tweeted a closely cropped version of the picture the same day, showing just Biden and Yatsenyuk.

“Great to see former Ukrainian PM Arseniy Yatsenyuk today,” Biden’s tweet said. “Played critical role in keeping Ukraine on European path.”

The alleged whistle-blower was also a listed guest of then-Vice President Biden at a luncheon in October 2016 to honor the prime minister of Italy. The alleged whistle-blower was among the U.S. officials who accepted an invitation.

Emails largely released in the months and years after the Ukraine impeachment show Ciaramella worked very closely with Victoria Nuland, U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, and many others.

Nuland, the assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian affairs from 2013 to 2017, was a central figure in the implementation of the Obama-Biden Ukraine policies. The firing of Yovanovitch — an Obama holdover during the first Trump term — became a key focus of the Ukraine impeachment efforts.

Nuland told the Senate in September 2020 that “it varied at various times” on who was in charge of Ukraine policy under Charles Kupchan, saying that “both Ciaramella and Zentos were involved at various times.”

“Eric was regularly the clearing authority to get me into the White House for interagency meetings on Ukraine or for meetings with foreign visitors who we were jointly meeting on the compound, or I may have been coming to see any number of NSC staffers, Ciaramella included,” Nuland said.

Nuland said “of course I did” discuss Ukraine policy and the Ukrainian prosecutor general's office with Ciaramella, saying, “He was part of the interagency process. He was also on my negotiating team for the six or seven rounds of negotiations I did with the Russians on Donbass.”

Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt claimed to the Senate in September 2020 that “it wasn't Vice President Biden who conditioned the assistance, it was the — our interagency policy.”

“The day-to-day worker-bee engagement happens at the level of the sub-IPC, and that would include people like NSC directors, like Eric Ciaramella, and dozens of other people across the government,” Pyatt said.

Ciaramella’s Obama NSC colleague Elisabeth Zentos refused to answer numerous questions about Ciaramella during her Senate testimony in July 2020, although she said that “he's not somebody with whom I remember having any work dealings related to Burisma or Hunter Biden.”

Zentos said “that’s correct” when asked if she was declining to answer about Ciaramella and his portfolio, and also declined to answer what her professional relationship was with him and whether she remained in touch.

Ciaramella himself sent an email to State Department officials with the subject line of “Ukraine anti-corruption delegation” on  January 6, 2016.

Ciaramella then sent an email to State Department officials on January 14, 2016. “We’ll be hosting Deputy PG [Prosecutor General] [David] Sakvarelidze, NABU [National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine] chief [Artem] Sytnyk, and AC [Anti-Corruption] prosecutor Kholodnytsky here on Tuesday 1/19 at 11:00. Are you having meetings with them at State? If not, would anyone from the desk like to attend our meeting?” Ciaramella wrote. “In addition, I was wondering whether you have any off‐the‐shelf background info on how the various anticorruption agencies/authorities fit together (no need to create this if it doesn’t exist), and whether there are any particular points that you or Post would like us to raise with the group.”

State Department official Jamie Gusack emailed Ciaramella four days later saying, “Eric […] Note the importance of appointing a new PG, reiterating that Shokin is an obstacle to reform.”

Volodymyr Pasichnyk, an employee in the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine, sent an email to the U.S. embassy in Ukraine on January 21, 2016 which shed light on Biden’s machinations related to Ukraine and Shokin. The email was referenced in a September 2020 deposition before the Senate and made public in 2023.

Biden's demand of dismissal of the Ukrainian prosecutor and US loan

The email said that, according to the Ukrainian Dzerkalo Tyzhnya news website, “The U.S. State Department has made it clear to the Ukrainian authorities that it links the provision of a one billion dollar loan guarantee to Ukraine to the dismissal of Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin. This became known during the visit by Deputy PGs Vitaliy Kasko, David Sakvarelidze, and AntiCorruption Prosecutor Nazar Kholodnytsky to the U.S. The Ukrainian officials are holding a number of professional and political meetings during their working visit to the U.S.”

“Buckle in,” Pyatt cryptically replied in an email sent to Ciaramella as well as to Zentos and Anna Makanju, an NSC member and adviser to Biden.

“​​Yikes. I don’t recall this coming up in our meeting with them on Tuesday, although we did discuss the fact that the PGO IG condition has not yet been met. (I’ve been meaning to write to you about our meeting—we were super impressed with the group, and we had a two-hour discussion of their priorities and the obstacles they face.),” Ciaramella wrote. “In yesterday’s IPC we agreed to come up with some interagency press guidance/TPs for UA officials on the Shokin/LG issue. So, we will circle back with EUR and our/their press folks to expedite that effort.”

Ambassador John Bass sent a July 19, 2016 redacted email with the subject line “URGENT Late-Breaking Update — Context for POTUS Call.” Ciaramella replied, “Thanks, Ambassador — I got this to” the person who needed it “just before he walked into the pre-brief.”

Ciaramella was also involved in July 2016 emails about “Minsk Implementation.” The Minsk Agreements from 2014 and 2015 were tied to relations between Russia and Ukraine and to efforts to end Russian hostilities in eastern Ukraine.

Christopher Anderson of the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine sent a late August 2016 redacted email with the subject line of “No Progress (Yet) in Minsk.” State Department diplomat Bridget Brink sent a redacted reply.

Ciaramella thanked her and added “our colleagues from #Russia. See you in a little while.”

Biden foreign policy speechwriter Carlyn Reichel sent an August 21, 2016 email saying, “Hi all—here's the draft of the brief opening remarks for the VP at the Baltic summit in Riga. It's short, so please send any edits you have by noon tomorrow so that I can incorporate before we are wheels up.” Ciaramella sent back “just a few small suggested tweaks.”

Biden’s August 2016 speech in Riga included a lot of discussion about Russia and mentions of Ukraine

German official Matthias Luttenberg sent a September 2, 2016 email to Ciaramella.

“Dear Eric, thank you for organizing today's VTC [video teleconference]. We think it was helpful in streamlining our efforts,” the German wrote. “In the spirit of our good cooperation, please find attached the latest version of our paper ‘Strengthening the ceasefire — Immediate steps’ as agreed with Kyiv and as shared with [Deputy Prime Minister Vladislav] Surkov yesterday.”

Ciaramella replied, “Thank you very much, Matthias. We will share this with our entire team.” Ciaramella also sent a lengthy yet-redacted mid-September 2016 email to Nuland and others on “SMM presence and disengagement locations.”

“SMM” most likely referred to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe’s Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine, and the disengagement locations were special buffer zones agreed to by the OSCE, Russia, and Ukraine.

Ciaramella’s links to 2016 Ukraine election meddling claims became clearer

Emails also indicate Ciaramella’s potential links to figures tied to claims of Ukrainian election meddling in 2016.

Alexandra Chalupa, a founder of her own consulting firm and a co-chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee’s Ethnic Council, faced allegations she coordinated with Ukrainian officials in 2016 while digging up Russia-related dirt on Trump’s then-campaign manager, Paul Manafort. Chalupa has denied this.

Chalupa appears to have been at an Obama White House event with Ciaramella in 2015. She featured prominently in a 2017 Politico article cited repeatedly by Republicans, including during impeachment proceedings, as evidence that Ukraine attempted to help Clinton win in 2016.

Judicial Watch said White House visitor logs showed that Chalupa “visited the White House 27 times” during the Obama administration. For her part, Chalupa has said that "I was not an opposition researcher for the DNC, and the DNC never asked me to go to the Ukrainian embassy to collect information.”

A posting by the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation in November 2015 said that “representatives of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations met with Obama Administration officials” about the need for the U.S. to send humanitarian assistance to Ukraine. The post said Ciaramella was among the Obama administration officials with whom the Ukrainian delegation met. The post said that “also in attendance were” a number of U.S. and Ukrainian officials including “Ali Chalupa, (National Democratic Ethnic Coordinating Committee).”

Ukraine Weekly republished the same post in November 2015.

Andrii Telizhenko, a former Ukrainian Embassy employee, has argued that he was told by Oksana Shulyar, a top counselor to Ukraine’s then-Ambassador to the U.S., Valeriy Chaly, that he should help Chalupa in her 2016 anti-Trump efforts. Chalupa has disputed Telizhenko’s claims.

Emails also show Telizhenko also repeatedly met with Zentos in 2016 — meetings which Ciaramella was seemingly clued in on.

“Dear Liz, Hi this is Andrii Telizhenko, how are you? Tried contacting you through facebook. I am working at the Embassy of Ukraine in US now,” Telizhenko emailed Zentos on Jan. 19, 2016. “Tomorrow you have a planned meeting with [Ukrainian officials] Mr. Sytnyk, Mr. Kholodnickiy, and Mr. Sakvarelidze at 11:00am, we spoke to Mr. Sytnyk and Mr. Kholodnockiy that they would like to have somebody from the Embassy be with them at the meeting. Would it be possible to add me in? I apologize for the late notice, just got informed. With Regards, Andrii Telizhenko.”

Zentos forwarded the email to Ciaramella the same day, saying, “FYI—just took the time to actually read this. Woops.” Telizhenko appeared on the White House log for the meeting, seemingly with Ciaramella as his point of contact.

A Senate GOP report said that the Ukrainian delegation was confirmed for January 19, 2016, at the Obama White House with “Eric Ciaramella, Elizabeth [sic] Zentos and others TBD, National Security Council.” 

The “Agenda for Examination of the US Adversarial Criminal Justice System for senior-level Ukrainian prosecutors January 18, 2016 – January 23, 2016” included a meeting with Ciaramella.

Zentos and Telizhenko also planned a March 2016 meeting at a coffee shop in D.C., with Zentos saying she would see if Ciaramella was “up for joining.”

Emails indicated Zentos and Telizhenko also had meetings in mid-March, mid-April, early May 2016, and early July 2016.

The September 2020 report from Senate Republicans noted that “the Democrats’ personification of Russian disinformation” Andrii Telizhenko — who accompanied Rudy Giuliani to Ukraine in 2019 — also “met with Obama administration officials, including Elisabeth Zentos, a member of Obama’s National Security Council, at least ten times” and that “a Democrat lobbying firm, Blue Star Strategies, contracted with Telizhenko from 2016 to 2017 and continued to request his assistance as recent as the summer of 2019.”

The Treasury Department sanctioned Telizhenko in January 2021.

Concerns about Hunter Biden role with Burisma raised even inside Obama Admin

Obama Administration records also show internal concern about Hunter Biden’s role on the Ukrainian energy giant Burisma while Joe Biden was leading the Obama Administration’s Ukraine policy.

Hunter Biden said in 2019 that he spoke with his father about his position on the Burisma board just once, saying his father told him, “I hope you know what you are doing.” Hunter Biden says he replied, “I do.” Joe Biden’s son was asked if he would have been asked to be on the Burisma board if his last name was Biden.

"Probably not, in retrospect," he said. "But that's — you know — I don't think that there's a lot of things that would have happened in my life if my last name wasn't Biden."

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., released a joint report in 2020, with much of its focus on then-Vice President Biden’s role in helping guide the Obama administration’s Ukraine policy while Hunter Biden held a lucrative position on the board of Burisma.

Much of the 2020 report’s focus was on Joe Biden’s role helping guide the Obama administration’s Ukraine policy while Hunter Biden received a lucrative position in 2014 on the board of Burisma, run by Ukrainian oligarch Mykola Zlochevsky, which the Republicans said “created an immediate potential conflict of interest that would prove to be problematic for both U.S. and Ukrainian officials and would affect the implementation of Ukraine policy” during the Obama years.

“On April 16, 2014, Vice President Biden met with his son’s business partner, Devon Archer, at the White House. Five days later, Vice President Biden visited Ukraine, and he soon after was described in the press as the ‘public face of the administration’s handling of Ukraine.’ The day after his visit, on April 22, Archer joined the board of Burisma,” Grassley and Johnson wrote. “Six days later, on April 28, British officials seized $23 million from the London bank accounts of Burisma’s owner, Mykola Zlochevsky. Fourteen days later, on May 12, Hunter Biden joined the board of Burisma, and over the course of the next several years, Hunter Biden and Devon Archer were paid millions of dollars from a corrupt Ukrainian oligarch for their participation on the board.”

The report said George Kent, former acting deputy chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine, “raised concerns to officials in Vice President Joe Biden’s office about the perception of a conflict of interest with respect to Hunter Biden’s role on Burisma’s board” in early 2015. The report alleged that “Kent’s concerns went unaddressed” and that he wrote an email to his colleagues stating that “the presence of Hunter Biden on the Burisma board was very awkward for all U.S. officials pushing an anticorruption agenda in Ukraine” in September 2016.

The report also contended that senior Obama State Department official Amos Hochstein “raised concerns with Vice President Biden, as well as with Hunter Biden, that Hunter Biden’s position on Burisma’s board enabled Russian disinformation efforts and risked undermining U.S. policy in Ukraine” in October 2015.

The Deputy Economic Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv sent an email to Kent and others on November 22, 2016 warning about the Ukrainian oligarch who owned Burisma and about Hunter Biden’s role at the company.

"Zlochevskiy is wanted in Ukraine for crimes related to corruption, but the case against him has been marred by even more corruption: Ukraine officials controversially unfroze $23 million in a London bank account, and it disappears into the offshore system,” the counselor wrote. “Ambassador Pyatt spoke about this as an example of corruption within the PGO [Prosecutor General’s Office]. Despite his ruined name in Ukraine, Zlochevskiy is actively campaigning for public rehabilitation, particularly with us. He has been sending letters to Ambassadors Yovanovitch and Pyatt for months asserting his innocence; we have declined to get involved.”

The counselor added: “I should note that there were two American members of the Burisma board: Hunter Biden and Devon Archer. Archer was recently indicted in a federal fraud case. … More than one U.S. firm in the energy sector has told us the [sic] Burisma is still doing business ‘the old way’ and little has changed despite Zlochevskiy’s departure from the scene.”

Kent sent a “confidential” email to Yovanovitch the same day when he was even more blunt. "The real issue to my mind was that someone in Washington needed to engage VP Biden quietly and say that his son Hunter's presence on the Burisma board undercut the anti-corruption message the VP and we were advancing in Ukraine b/c Ukrainians heard one message from us and then saw another set of behavior with the [Biden] family association with a known corrupt figure whose company was known for not playing by the rules.”

In his 2021 memoir, Hunter Biden defended Zlochevsky, claiming the Ukrainian “was concerned with protecting his company from Vladimir Putin’s advances” and “wanted to lure more U.S. and European investors” — claiming that was why he was hired.

Hunter called the Burisma work “inspiring” and “consequential” while also admitting that “the pay was good” and that “there’s no question my last name was a coveted credential.”

IRS whistleblowers thought Biden pushing for Shokin firing was shady

Trump and his allies claimed Biden improperly used his position as vice president to pressure Ukraine to fire its top prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, to protect his son from an investigation into Burisma. Biden boasted to a Council of Foreign Relations panel in January 2018 that he ordered Ukraine to fire Shokin or the White House would renege on a commitment to provide aid.

“I remember going over [...] and I was supposed to announce that there was another billion dollar loan guarantee. And I had gotten a commitment from [Ukrainian President Petro] Poroshenko and from [then-Prime Minister Arseniy] Yatsenyuk that they would take action against the state prosecutor [Viktor Shokin],” Biden said in 2018. “And they didn’t… They were walking out to a press conference. I said, ‘Nah, […] We’re not going to give you the billion dollars.’ They said, ‘You have no authority. You’re not the president.’ […] I said, ‘Call him.’ I said, ‘I’m telling you, you’re not getting the billion dollars.’ […] I looked at them and said, ‘I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money.’ Well, son of a bitch, he got fired.”

IRS whistleblower Joseph Ziegler spoke to the House in December 2023 about Hunter Biden’s machinations in Ukraine.

Ziegler pointed to an October 2015 proposal sent by the Democratic lobbying firm Blue Star to Burisma Holdings to provide “government relations support” — which was shared with Hunter Biden and Burisma adviser Vadym Pozharskyi. The IRS whistleblower pointed out that the agreement stated that part of the scope of work was the “closure of the file against Mr. Zlochevsky” — the CEO of Burisma.

“As an investigator, I would interpret these emails to mean that they did not want to put the true purpose of the agreement in writing, but that everyone involved knew that the unstated goal was to have the Ukrainian Prosecutor General (Shokin) removed, in an effort to close the criminal case against Nikolay Zlochevsky,” Ziegler told Congress. 

Ziegler assessed that “there was a clear involvement between Hunter Biden, Burisma officials, individuals with Bluestar, the Vice-President’s Office, and current and former individuals with the administration.”

“Going back to the video of Vice President Joe Biden in Ukraine saying, ‘if you don’t fire Viktor Shokin by the time I leave’ and he looks at his watch, he’s like, ‘you’re not getting the money’ — this is like a Biden family tradition almost, right? To shake down people to get exactly what you want,” IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley said in a December 2025 podcast.

Ciaramella has joined “Lawfare” site run by Comey friend

Ciaramella has appeared on dozens of podcast episodes put out by the anti-Trump Lawfare outlet, and he is listed as a “contributing editor” at the site. Benjamin Wittes, the editor-in-chief of Lawfare, has appeared on multiple Lawfare episodes with Ciaramella. 

Wittes was described by Politico in 2017 as “The Bard of the Deep State” and is a longtime Trump critic and a self-described friend of fired FBI Director James Comey and disgraced FBi agent Peter Strzok.

Michael Schmidt of The New York Times wrote multiple stories in May 2017 about Comey’s interactions with Trump — including the contents of the so-called Comey Memos — as Comey sought the appointment of a special counsel after being fired by Trump.

Wittes said in 2017 that he was a source for at least one of the stories — which described Wittes as “a friend of Mr. Comey’s” — with Wittes writing that he gave a long interview to Schmidt “about my conversations with FBI Director James Comey over the last few months, and particularly about one such conversation that took place on March 27 over lunch in Comey’s FBI office.”

Comey friend and former FBI special government employee Daniel Richman had helped leak the Comey Memos to the Times.

During Trump’s first term, Wittes would celebrate Russiagate stories with videos of a “Baby Cannon” firing, and he has remained a devoted Trump foe. Ciaramella and Wittes also teamed up for internet episodes on Ukraine in August 2025, July 2025, February 2025, November 2024, October 2024, December 2023, and June 2023.

Ciaramella joined Wittes for a November 2025 discussion on the “machinations surrounding a potential Russia-Ukraine peace deal” and asking “is the United States abandoning Ukraine?”

A December 2025 Lawfare episode described Ciaramella as a “Lawfare colleague.” In that episode, Ciaramella and Wittes both joined an episode which discussed topics including “The Art of the Ordeal” criticizing the Trump administration’s Ukraine-Russia peace efforts, “Unlawful Good” on the so-called “Seditious Six,” and “The War Crime on Drugs” criticizing War Secretary Pete Hegseth.