Ukraine tipster in offer to GOP
Whistleblower would OK written queries
The lawyer for the whistleblower who sparked the impeachment inquiry into President Trump claims he has offered Republicans the chance to interview his client via written questions, the attorney said Sunday.
Mark Zaid wrote in a series of tweets that he reached out to GOP Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, to tell him GOPers could contact the whistleblower through the legal team and bypass the Democratic head of the panel, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.).
But Zaid cautioned that the questions “cannot seek identifying info, regarding which we will not provide, or otherwise be inappropriate.”
Zaid said the whistleblower’s written answers also would be “under oath & penalty of perjury.”
Trump and congressional Republicans have increased their calls for the whistleblower to be identified and testify publicly before Congress about the allegations in his complaint.
The whistleblower provided a largely secondhand account of Trump’s July 25 phone call in which Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to begin an investigation into Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (DCalif.) launched the impeachment inquiry in September after news reports revealed the content of the complaint and the president’s conversation with Zelensky.
Zaid went on to say the legal team stands “ready to ensure the facts — rather than partisanship — dictates any process involving the whistleblower.”
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) told CBS’s “Face the Nation,” which first reported Zaid’s offer, that as the top Republican in the House, he hadn’t received the offer.
“Well, Devin’s in California. So let’s see how they submitted. But first of all, we were talking about the removal of the president of United States,” he said.
Asked by host Margaret Brennan if he was open to it, McCarthy maintained that the whistleblower should testify to the committee.
“What I’m open to, when you’re talking about the removal of the president of the United States, undoing democracy, undoing what the American public had voted for, I think that individual should come before the committee,” McCarthy responded, saying a level of “openness” was necessary for the public to grasp the situation.
Andrew Bakaj, a member of the whistleblower’s legal team, also took to Twitter on Sunday to argue for the protection of the whistleblower’s identify.
“Let me be absolutely clear: Our willingness to cooperate has not changed,” Bakaj wrote. “What we object to and find offensive, however, is the effort to uncover the identity of the whistleblower.”
The Democratic-controlled House voted along party lines last Thursday to formalize the impeachment inquiry and lay out ground rules that would dictate how the depositions of witnesses are released and who can issue subpoenas and call witnesses.