The anonymity of the whistleblower in the case of President Trump’s alleged Ukrainian misconduct is guaranteed by law, but that hasn’t stopped a number of politicians from attempting to out the individual publicly.
Today was no exception, as a line of questioning during an impeachment hearing erupted into a bit of whistleblower hysteria at the behest of a few familiar faces.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and the committee’s ranking member Rep. Devin Nunes. R-Calif., clashed during Tuesday’s impeachment inquiry hearing after Schiff suggested Nunes’ questions could lead to the outing of the anonymous whistleblower who filed the complaint about President Trump.
Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, an Army officer at the National Security Council, told Nunes that he spoke with two people outside the White House about Trump’s July 25 call with Ukrainian President Voldomyr Zelensky in the immediate wake of the interaction, including State Department official George Kent and one member of the “intelligence community.”
Nunes then pressed Vindman about which agency the intelligence community member hailed from.
Schiff jumped in to interrupt the exchange, apparently worried the exchange could name the whistleblower — though Vindman later insisted he doesn’t know who the whistleblower is.
The work being done to identify the whistleblower is a symptom of our dysfunctional political system, in which we are being herded like sheep into pens labeled “Team A” and “Team B”, and forced to agree with all of the tenets of those teams while disavowing the beliefs of those Americans who reside on the other side of the fence.
The truth shall set us all free, and that includes the President and we do not need the whistleblower to be publicly identified to find it.
