Deal reached to secure testimony from whistle-blower that led to Trump impeachment saga, House Intelligence chairman says
- Adam Schiff says they expect to hear ‘very soon’ from the whistle-blower, identified by some news outlets as a CIA officer
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said Sunday that his panel has reached an agreement to secure testimony from the anonymous whistle-blower whose detailed complaint launched an impeachment investigation last week into President Donald Trump.
Schiff, said he expected the Intelligence Committee to hear from the whistle-blower “very soon” pending a security clearance from acting director of national intelligence Joseph Maguire.
“We’ll get the unfiltered testimony of that whistle-blower,” Schiff said on ABC News’ This Week, noting that Maguire said in a hearing Thursday that he would allow the whistle-blower to testify privately without constraints.
The whistle-blower kicked off the impeachment saga that came to a head with Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s announcement Tuesday of an “official impeachment inquiry.” In that nine-page August 12 complaint filed with the inspector general of the intelligence community, the whistle-blower accused Trump of “using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 US election” – in particular, through a July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The identity of the whistle-blower has been closely guarded, though The Washington Post and other news outlets have identified him as a male CIA officer. Schiff said Sunday that members of his committee were “taking all the precautions we can … to go forward in a way to protect the whistle-blower’s identity”.
Numerous Republicans have attacked the whistle-blower complaint as “hearsay”, noting that the information contained in it came from second-hand sources.
Schiff said Sunday that does not make the complaint less credible because key allegations in it were confirmed by a rough transcript of the Trump-Zelensky call as well as other sources.
“This whistle-blower has already been substantially corroborated, which suggests that other information that he or she provides in that complaint likewise may be subject to corroboration,” he said. “So do not dismiss both the professionalism of this whistle-blower, and – and this is what we would expect of someone who comes out of the intelligence community.”
Schiff declined to say whether he knew of other whistle-blowers who have come forward in recent days but encouraged any officials with information about the allegations to step up.
“We are dependent on people of good conscience coming forward, particularly now, given that we have such an unscrupulous president,” he said.
