Top impeachment committee Republicans to Schiff: Bring in the whistleblower

The top Republicans on the three House committees currently conducting the impeachment proceedings criticized House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., for not arranging to hear testimony from the whistleblower whose complaint is the very basis for the impeachment proceedings.

In a letter obtained by Blaze Media on Wednesday night, House Oversight Committee ranking member Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, House Intelligence Committee ranking member Devin Nunes, R-Calif., and House Foreign Affairs Committee ranking member Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said they were "surprised" by Schiff's saying earlier this month that "the Committees will not receive testimony from the anonymous intelligence community employee whose complaint initiated the so-called impeachment inquiry."

On October 13, Schiff said that the whistleblower may not testify due to concerns about protecting the person's identity.

According to the trio of Republicans, the impeachment probe has thus far gathered "information that contradicts the employee's allegations," therefore the federal employee and the sources used for the complaint need to be scrutinized by the investigating committees.

As examples of the information that contradicts the intelligence worker's complaint, the letter cites the transcript of a July 25 phone call between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as well as Zelensky's contention that he didn't feel pressured to by president Trump during their interactions.

The anonymous August 12 complaint alleged that the president "sought to pressure" his eastern European counterpart in an effort "to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election" in order to boost his re-election prospects.

"In light of these inconsistencies between facts as alleged by the employee and information obtained during the so-called impeachment inquiry, the Committees ought to fully assess the sources and credibility of the employee," says the letter, which was also sent to the Democratic chairs of the other two committees.

The three lawmakers cited the lopsided process powers of the current impeachment probe — which have drawn criticism from the White House — as the reason they have to ask Schiff to arrange the testimony instead of doing it themselves.

"Because Speaker Pelosi's unilateral impeachment inquiry has not provided us with co-equal subpoena power — as has been the bipartisan precedent in modern impeachment inquiries," the letter concludes, "we expect you to arrange for the Committees to receive testimony of the employees [sic] and all individuals he or she relied upon in formulating the August 12th complaint."

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