President Trump on Thursday told a group of about 50 people at a private event at the United Nations General Assembly that the whistleblower who came forward with information that Trump pressured the Ukrainian president to investigate his political rival Joe Biden was “close to a spy,” The New York Times reports. “I want to know who’s the person who gave the whistleblower the information because that’s close to a spy,” Trump reportedly said, according to a source with notes of the president’s remarks. “You know what we used to do in the old days when we were smart with spies and treason, right? We used to handle it a little differently than we do now.” The comments reportedly stunned people in the audience, but are in line with Trump’s persistent efforts to dispel the whistleblower complaint since news of its existence broke on Friday. The complaint, which was released to the public on Thursday, notes that the whistleblower obtained information about the call from multiple United States officials.