Top Democrat asks for multiple new investigations into Trump following impeachment acquittal

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is asking for a major investigation of potential retaliation against whistleblowers in the wake of President Donald Trump's post-acquittal firing of an impeachment witness.

The Senate minority leader is sending letters Monday to all 74 agency inspectors general asking for the investigations after Trump removed Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman from his position on the National Security Council, along with his twin brother Lt. Col. Yevgeny Vindman, who's an ethics lawyer at the NSC, reported Politico.

Gordon Sondland, ambassador to the European Union and another key impeachment witness, was also removed from his diplomatic posting Friday, two days after the Republican-led Senate voted to acquit the president in his impeachment trial.

Schumer described the firings as a "dangerous" pattern of retaliation against Trump's political enemies, and he asked the inspectors general of each agency to investigate any act of retaliation against those who reported presidential misconduct.

“Without the courage of whistleblowers and the role of Inspectors General, the American people may never have known how the President abused his power in the Ukraine scandal," Schumer wrote. "It is incumbent on you that whistleblowers … are protected for doing what we hope and expect those who serve our country will do when called: tell the truth.”