The mysterious "Witness 2" whose testimony was critical to advancing the Ukraine whistleblower complaint that triggered President Donald Trump's first impeachment has been identified as Gavin Wilde — a former National Security Agency analyst and National Security Council official whose deep ties to the discredited Russia collusion investigation, documented connection to disgraced FBI agent Peter Strzok, and co-authorship of the flawed 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment on Russian election interference were all hidden from House investigators during the impeachment proceedings.
Just the News confirmed Wilde's identity through U.S. government sources familiar with the matter, who noted that his biography and public statements match in precise detail the biographical information Witness 2 provided to investigators working for Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson in August 2019.
The revelation adds a significant new dimension to an impeachment scandal that has been unraveling rapidly since Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard began declassifying the suppressed ICIG documents earlier this month. Wilde is not simply an anonymous bureaucrat who witnessed something concerning — he is a central figure in the same anti-Trump intelligence community network that produced the Russia hoax, and his involvement in both the 2016 ICA and the 2019 Ukraine impeachment complaint traces a direct line between the two operations.
Wilde did not respond to requests for comment sent through the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Defense Priorities, and the Alperovitch Institute — three organizations where he is currently listed as working.
Who Is Gavin Wilde?
Wilde spent more than a decade as a senior analyst at the Defense Department before leaving government in 2021. During that time he described himself as an "NSA guy" focused on Russia and information warfare, and his online biography at the NSC listed his role as coordinating "whole-of-government efforts to counter Russian malign influence efforts — including counterintelligence, cybersecurity, and election security initiatives."
He was also, according to the declassified ICIG documents, the co-author of the January 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment that claimed Vladimir Putin specifically tried to help Trump defeat Hillary Clinton — the assessment that has since been acknowledged by the CIA itself to have been based on faulty intelligence and poorly executed spy tradecraft, and that incorporated Christopher Steele's discredited Clinton-campaign-funded dossier. That inconvenient biographical detail — that Witness 2 had helped produce the very assessment at the foundation of the Russia collusion narrative — was recorded in the ICIG's interview notes and then redacted before House investigators saw them.
Wilde also worked with Peter Strzok at some point during his government career. Strzok was the FBI agent who launched the Crossfire Hurricane investigation, personally named it, and sent the opening electronic communication that authorized surveillance of the Trump campaign — all while his text messages were recording his virulent anti-Trump bias and his promise to then-FBI lawyer Lisa Page that "we'll stop" Trump from becoming president. Strzok was fired in 2019. The nature and timing of Wilde's work with Strzok is not fully clear from the public record, but the connection was documented by ICIG investigators and hidden from Congress.
"Reading Between the Lines" to Build an Impeachment
The declassified ICIG documents reveal that Witness 2's contribution to the impeachment complaint was built not on direct knowledge but on inference and interpretation. Wilde — as Witness 2 — told investigators he had "read between the lines" of the Trump-Zelensky call transcript to conclude it involved a politically motivated solicitation from a foreign government. He had no recollection of the 2020 election being explicitly mentioned in the call. There was not, he acknowledged, an explicit "if you want X, I need Y" framework to what was said.
"Reading between the lines is an interpretation that someone has," then-Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-OH) pressed Inspector General Atkinson at the time. "It's not factual, it is an interpretation." Atkinson agreed.
The ICIG also acknowledged that Witness 2 had changed his own characterization of Trump's conduct during the call — first calling it a "request for assistance," then upgrading it to a "quid pro quo." The whistleblower complaint itself, notably, did not use the term "quid pro quo." Democrats seeking impeachment did — relentlessly.
Atkinson further admitted that he was not even certain whether Wilde had read the same version of the call transcript that the White House later publicly released, saying flatly, "I do not know what written record Witness 2 read."
An impeachment of a sitting United States president was partly anchored to the interpretations of a man whose biases were hidden from Congress, who "read between the lines" to reach conclusions the words themselves did not support, and whose connection to the previous anti-Trump intelligence operation — the Russia hoax — was actively concealed.
"An Affront to Truth, Justice and the American Way"
The declassified memos capture Wilde's emotional reaction to the Trump-Zelensky call in language that makes his political motivations plain. He described the call as "an affront to truth, justice and the American way." He told investigators he felt "deep disappointment" and "dejection and helplessness." He stated he had a "moral and patriotic duty" to help Ciaramella and that he "wanted to sleep the sleep of the just" by assisting with the complaint.
A man who helped write the flawed 2016 Russia assessment, worked with Peter Strzok, was embedded in Trump's NSC, and felt Trump's conduct on a phone call was "an affront to truth, justice and the American way" is not a dispassionate intelligence professional fulfilling a legal obligation. He is a politically motivated actor who found an opportunity to act on his anti-Trump views — and whose biases were deliberately hidden from the congressional investigators who were supposed to provide impartial oversight of the entire process.
Still Active — and Still Connected to Ciaramella
After leaving government in 2021, Wilde has been anything but quiet. He has written pieces for the Atlantic Council and the Council on Foreign Relations, published articles suggesting Trump "parroted Russian propaganda," and expressed concern about "MAGA conspiracy theories" — some of which, as events have subsequently demonstrated, turned out to be accurate.
Wilde currently works alongside the alleged whistleblower himself — Eric Ciaramella, identified in numerous media reports as the complaint's author — at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The two have co-authored work together, including a December 2023 piece for the Center for New American Security on identifying Russian vulnerabilities. Ciaramella's 2023 Carnegie paper on Ukraine security thanked Wilde for "insightful comments on a draft." Both are contributors to the Lawfare outlet, whose editor-in-chief Benjamin Wittes is a self-described close friend of fired FBI Director James Comey.
The network that produced the Ukraine impeachment complaint did not disband after Trump's acquittal. It reconvened at Washington think tanks and anti-Trump media platforms, where its members have continued writing, podcasting, and advocating — while the evidence of their roles in the impeachment saga was kept under classification for more than seven years.
What Comes Next
Gabbard has already sent criminal referrals to the Justice Department targeting both Ciaramella and former ICIG Atkinson. Whether Wilde faces similar scrutiny — given that his biases and Russiagate connections were documented by ICIG investigators and then concealed from Congress — is a question investigators will now need to answer.
What is already clear, from the documentary record now in the public domain, is that the Ukraine impeachment was not the product of a lone principled whistleblower alarmed by presidential misconduct. It was the product of a coordinated network of anti-Trump intelligence community insiders — connected to each other, connected to Strzok, connected to the Russia hoax — who leveraged their positions inside the government to advance a complaint built on hearsay, political bias, and the willingness to "read between the lines" when the words themselves would not cooperate.
Gavin Wilde did not respond to requests for comment. Criminal referrals related to the Ukraine impeachment whistleblower complaint have been transmitted to the Justice Department. The investigation is ongoing.
Secret 'Witness 2' Behind Ukraine Impeachment Identified as Anti-Trump Intel Officer With Deep Russiagate Ties
- by: Ben Martin
- 2026-04-22
- Source:
patriotuncensored.com
- 04/22/2026
