Politics Texas Republican reiterates call to protect Ukraine whistleblower’s identity

Republican Rep. Will Hurd on Sunday broke with members of his party who have been calling for the release of the Ukraine whistleblower’s identity, though he agreed with his party’s calls to have Hunter Biden testify in the first public impeachment hearings set to begin this week.

Hurd, a retiring Texas Republican who spent years in the CIA, told “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace that outing the whistleblower by compelling their testimony in a public hearing would send a chilling message to potential whistleblowers in the future.

Whistleblower willing to answer GOP questions, lawyer says

Zaid told CBS News that he made the offer in an effort to underscore his clients' desire to make sure that his complaint is handled in a nonpartisan way .Previously, the whistleblower had offered to answer questions under oath and in writing if submitted by the House Intelligence Committee as a whole. This new offer would be a direct channel of communication with the Republicans who are in the minority on that committee. Republican leadership has complained that the process is unfair and overly restrictive on their ability to question witnesses.

Whistleblower - protection policies are all good and well, but they are not more important than the public’ s ability This is doubly so given the whistleblower has no firsthand knowledge of the Zelensky call . Luke Thompson is a Republican political consultant and commentator based in New York City.

Amid calls by the president himself to expose the whistleblower , Donald Trump Jr. tweeted the AFP could not independently verify the whistleblower ’ s identity and is not publishing the name. – Exposed Trump’s Ukraine dealings –. Democrats launched the impeachment investigation in August

“I think we should be protecting the identity of the whistleblower. I've said that from the very beginning because how we treat this whistleblower will impact whistleblowers in the future,” Hurd argued. “Having this whistleblower law on the books is important; it's important checks and balance are not only in the intelligence committee, but in our government.”

Some allies of President Donald Trump have long agitated for the whistleblower, whose complaint this summer sparked the series of events leading to the ongoing impeachment inquiry, to come forward publicly, arguing the president deserves the chance to confront his accuser. They also argue the identity of the whistleblower is necessary to ascertain whether they have any political bias against the president, though the inspector general for the intelligence community found that despite an “arguable” bias, the whistleblower was still credible. © Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Rep. Will Hurd.

Grassley: Up to whistleblower to reveal identity

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said Monday that it is up to the whistleblower at the center of the impeachment inquiry to decide whether or not to come forward after President Trump urged the media to reveal the individual's identity."That's strictly up to the whistleblower," Grassley told reporters.

The whistleblower ’ s name has been kept confidential by U.S. officials, in line with federal law designed to prevent retaliation. But the supposed name of the whistleblower has been circulating in conservative corners of social media since at least Oct. 3, culminating in Trump Jr.’s Wednesday morning retweet

The whistleblower accurately described the call between Trump and Zelensky, the efforts to keep the call transcript concealed, the fact that military aid to Ukraine was upheld at We don’t need to know the whistleblower ’ s identity to assess their credibility, because we aren’t relying on their credibility.

The whistleblower was on a list of witnesses Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee submitted to Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) this weekend that they’d like to call to testify this week, though Schiff has veto power over those requests and shut that notion down late Saturday.

While Republicans have clamored for the whistleblower’s public testimony, pointing out that most of what his or her complaint contained was hearsay, nearly every accusation contained in the complaint has since been independently confirmed over weeks of closed-door testimony from Trump administration officials.

Right-wing media outlets have been circulating a name that they say is the alleged whistleblower, prompting an outcry from lawyers representing the whistleblower and concerns about the whistleblower’s safety.

Sen. Chuck Grassley Says It's 'Strictly Up To The Whistleblower' To Go Public

Sen. Chuck Grassley said Monday that it’s “strictly” up to the whistleblower who triggered the impeachment inquiry whether or not to be identified. The Iowa Republican’s comments came a day after an irritated President Donald Trump called on the media to expose this “radical” person’s identity. Grassley, who has authored whistleblower laws, has previously defended the anonymous process that protects federal whistleblowers from retaliation at work and physical threats. require(["medianetNativeAdOnArticle"], function (medianetNativeAdOnArticle) { medianetNativeAdOnArticle.

Whistleblower confidentiality is a core element in a system that encourages government employees to report waste, fraud and abuse through a process that Despite Trump’ s taunting and harassment, whistleblowers remain undaunted. President Trump and his allies have urged exposure of the initial

· Anyone the whistleblower relied on to create the complaint. Although Republicans can request any witness they want, the final word on whether they will be called lies with the Democrats and they are widely expected to overrule the call to both Biden and the whistleblower at least.

But while Hurd strayed from his party in calling for the continued protection of the whistleblower’s identity, he echoed their calls for another potential witness whose appearance Schiff suggested he would deny: Hunter Biden, the son of former Vice President Joe Biden whose foreign business interests were at the root of Trump’s Ukrainian pressure campaign.

“I would love to hear from Hunter Biden, I would love to hear from other Americans that served on the board of Burisma,” Hurd said, referring to the Ukrainian natural gas company that hired Biden. “I'm curious to know of someone who doesn't have any experience in Ukraine nor experience in a natural gas company comes on board of a natural gas company in Ukraine.”

“We also need to hear and understand the corruption. We know corruption in the Ukraine is an issue,” Hurd continued, pointing to the testimony of numerous State Department officials. Trump and his allies, in a crusade led by Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, have asserted that Hunter Biden was hired by Burisma in 2015, while his father served as the U.S. point person on corruption in Ukraine, because of his family ties. There is no evidence indicating that Hunter Biden had any influence on U.S. policy because of his position.

Schiff swatted down this request from Republicans on Saturday, saying the impeachment inquiries “will not serve, however, as a vehicle to undertake the same sham investigations into the Bidens or 2016 that the President pressed Ukraine to conduct for his personal political benefit.”