House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) on Sunday said his committee wanted to call for the whistleblower’s testimony but declined to do so for a pair of reasons, citing a "death penalty" threat.
Despite two weeks of extraordinary impeachment hearings, which amassed a dozen witnesses and over 30 hours of testimony, there was one person the public and Democratic-led House of Representatives did not get to hear from: the still-anonymous whistleblower who triggered the impeachment inquiry into President Trump.
“We had a deep interest in having the whistleblower testify until two things happened,” Schiff said. “One, we were able to prove everything in the whistleblower complaint with witnesses that had firsthand information; and second, the president and his allies effectively put that whistleblower’s life in danger.”
Trump, at the conclusion of the televised impeachment hearings, continued his calls for the whistleblower’s identity to be revealed as he lashed out at the inquiry in an interview with FOX & Friends last Friday. Story continuesThe inquiry, which followed the whistleblower’s complaint over President Trump’s July 25 Ukraine call, is centered on the president’s efforts, conveyed through his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, to coerce the government of Ukraine to announce investigations that he thought would help his 2020 campaign, including of his potential opponent Joe Biden and his son Hunter. Part of the pressure on Ukraine involved the temporary withholding of military aid.
Schiff spoke about another potential witness, John Bolton, the president’s former national security adviser, who reemerged on Twitter last week amid the hearings and had refused to testify before Congress, but, as the Democratic leader acknowledged, would more likely testify before a Republican-majority Senate.
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