Jordan to Schiff: Bring the Whistleblower in to Publicly Testify

https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/michael-w-chapman/jordan-schiff-bring-whistleblower-publicly-testify


Jordan to Schiff: Bring the Whistleblower in to Publicly Testify

By Kharen Martinez Murcia | October 25, 2019 | 4:25pm EDT


(CNSNews.com) -- On Oct. 23, Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), and Michael McCaul (R-Texas) sent a letter to House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), calling him out for not following through with his September announcement that the “whistleblower” in the Trump impeachment inquiry would testify before Congress.
“We are surprised by your announcement that the Committees will not receive testimony from the anonymous intelligence community employee whose complaint initiated the so-called impeachment inquiry,” the letter states. 
Chairman Schiff told This Week on ABC, on Sept. 29, that he had agreed to have the whistleblower testify “very soon” before the House Intelligence Committee, after the security process for the whistleblower and his or her lawyer was completed. Schiff stressed that the committee would get “unfiltered testimony.”


“We are ready to hear from the whistleblower,” Schiff said in September. "And we'll keep, obviously, riding shotgun to make sure the acting director doesn't delay in that clearance process."
So far, the so-called whistleblower has not testified before the committee and Schiff now says the person’s testimony is not necessary.


On Oct. 23, President Donald Trump referenced the whistleblower on his Twitter account asking, “Where's the Whistleblower?” He also tweeted after Schiff’s September comments, saying that “The Fake Whistleblower complaint is not holding up,” and that he released his call-transcript with the Ukrainian president “in the name of transparency.”
“You had earlier committed that the employee would provide ‘unfiltered’ testimony ‘very soon’ only to reverse course following revelations that the employee had a bias against President Donald Trump and that you had received a secret, early account of the allegations,” said Jordan in his letter to Schiff.
The letter further states that since the impeachment inquiry was announced on Sept. 24 the three committees involved “have obtained information that contradicts the employee’s [whistleblower] assertions,” and the committees need to “assess the sources and credibility of the employee.”


The letter notes that the the president of Ukraine has publicly said he felt no pressure when Speaking with President Trump in July. It also suggests that testimony from other persons rebuts  “the central assertion of the anonymous employee.”
Schiff defends the whistleblower but is not going to call him to testify before the Intelligence Committee.
“What the whistleblower reported about the president’s communication with President Zelensky turned out to be right on the mark,” Schiff told ABC's This Week. “This whistle blower has already been substantially corroborated, which suggests that other information that he or she provided in that complaint likewise may be subject of corroboration.”