Rep. Jim Jordan, the ranking GOP member on the House Oversight Committee, on Thursday said Republicans intend to subpoena the whistleblower, whose complaint sparked the impeachment inquiry into President Trump, to testify.
But because all witnesses must be approved by Rep. Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, the request isn’t expected to go anywhere in order to protect the identity of the whistleblower.
The anonymous whistleblower’s complaint about Trump’s July phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in which Trump sought an investigation into political rival Joe Biden and a 2016 conspiracy theory prompted the impeachment inquiry.
The purported identity of the person has been circulating on some conservative media sites, but hasn’t been released by Congress or the White House.
Republicans accuse the whistleblower of being anti-Trump and cite how the informant contacted Schiff’s panel on advice about filing a complaint.
Some have argued that Trump has the right to confront his accuser, even though federal law protects whistleblowers.
“It’s designed to protect you from being fired if you come forward. It doesn’t give you anonymity,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told reporters on Wednesday. ”
Nobody should be prosecuted based on an anonymous accusation. Impeachment is the political death penalty. Without the whistleblower complaint, none of this would be going on so I want to know who the person is.”
But Democrats said GOP efforts to out the whistleblower amount to nothing but retribution.
“This attempt to name the whistleblower is simply revenge, outright punitive retribution and trying to discourage other whistleblowers in an administration that is so fraught with corruption there are bound to be other whistleblowers as well,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.).
The whistleblower’s lawyers, Mark Zaid and Andrew Bakaj, said identifying their client would “place that individual and their family at risk of serious harm.”
With Post wires