JUDGE: RAND IS OUT OF ORDER
Sen. Rand Paul on Thursday tried to ask a question that could have identified the whistleblower whose complaint sparked President Trump’s impeachment — but Chief Justice John Roberts refused to read it.
“The presiding officer declines to read the question as submitted,” Roberts said after reading for himself the Kentucky Republican’s written query during Trump’s trial.
It was the first time during the question-and-answer phase of the trial that Roberts declined to read a question.
But the issue of why the whistleblower was not called to testify in even a closed session of the House’s investigation occupied a good portion of the Thursday Senate session.
And a short while after being rebuffed, Paul read aloud his proposed question to reporters.
“Manager Schiff and counsel for the president, are you aware that House Intelligence Committee staffer Sean Misko has a close relationship with Eric Ciaramella when at the National Security Council together?” he asked.
“Are you aware, and how do you respond to reports that Ciaramella and Misko may have worked together to plot impeaching the president before there were formal House impeachment proceedings?” Paul continued.
Multiple media reports have identified Ciaramella as the whistleblower. The identities of whistleblowers are generally protected to encourage others to come forward, although some have argued that the federal protections extend only to a whistleblower’s employment.
But Paul insisted his question “makes no reference to anybody who may or may not be a whistleblower.”
Instead, he asserted, he was interested in whether the duo were part of a cabal out to get Trump.
“I think it’s very important whether or not a group of Democratic activists, part of the Obama-Biden administration, were working together for years looking for an opportunity to impeach the president.”
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) later asked a question, apparently about Misko, without mentioning his name, alleging that he and other National Security Council officials were plotting to oust Trump.
House impeachment manager Rep. Adam Schiff replied that whistleblowers need protection — but asserted that the president did not share that view.
“I’m sure the president is applauding this question because he wants his pound of flesh,” Schiff replied.
“Members of this body used to care about the protection of whistleblower identities. They didn’t used to gratuitously attack members of committee staff. But now they do . . . I think that’s disgraceful.”
Later, Trump’s lead defense lawyer turned House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s own words
against her — asserting that she was right when she said last March that impeachment was too divisive and would rip the country apart.
“That should end it. Speaker Pelosi was right when she said that. Unfortunately, she didn’t follow her own advice,” White House Counsel Pat Cipollone said in response to a question from GOP senators.
“Impeachment of a president in an election year with the goal of removing the president from the ballot [is] the most massive election interference we’ve ever seen.”
Earlier, Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow argued that such a proceeding during an election year does a “disservice” to American voters.
Noting that the country is just days away from the Iowa caucuses, Sekulow said senators were “discussing the possible impeachment and removal of the president . . . not only during the election season, in the heart of the election season.”