Nope.
Boom. You lost. Nice try.
Your misconstruing "first hand" with "direct" knowledge, which aren't he same thing but are in the same category on the submission form.
First box
"I have personal
and/or direct knowledge of events or records involved"
Second box involved
“Other employees have told me about events or records involved"
And then the report the person submitted to Congress, under penalty of perjury.
“I was not a direct witness to most of the events described. However, I found my colleagues’ accounts of these events to be credible because, in almost all cases, multiple officials recounted fact patterns that were consistent with one another.”
It's pretty clear, they weren't in on the call but later read the transcripts or was informed of the contents by people who were in on the call. That would constitute direct knowledge without being first hand knowledge.
To the audience who might actually be paying attention, since we know the Canadian isn't. It may seem like semantics but there is a legal difference between first hand and direct knowledge of something and that revolves around the ability to testify on that event. First hand means a witness can be called in front of a court (or Congress) and be placed under oath to provide what they witnesses. Direct knowledge means they can't provide that testimony but their statements are credible enough to warrant an investigation. Since this was to the Inspector General's Office, who do these investigations, first hand knowledge and direct knowledge are handled the same since both are sufficient for a formal investigation.
Think of it like this, Shiroi, Chanti and Vic are having a conversation on how to start a Socialist Revolution and overthrow the US Government. Later in a conversation with Chanti she tells me about her conversation with the other two and what they said, or there is a transcript of that conversation that I read.
Now I have not observed this conversation first hand but I do have direct knowledge of this conversation and my information is sufficient enough to warrant an investigation but would not be allowed in a trial because it's hearsay. This distinction is important because while it's technically hearsay, it's not rumor and sufficient enough to get authorities involved in an investigation and get a Judge to write warrants against.