The top Republicans on three congressional committees leading an impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump called out Rep. Adam Schiff on Wednesday for reversing course on calling a CIA whistleblower to testify before Congress, according to a letter obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation.
The Republicans also asked Schiff to arrange public testimony from the whistleblower and any other individuals he relied on as part of an Aug. 12 complaint filed with the Intelligence Community Inspector General regarding Trump’s actions towards Ukraine.
“We are surprised by your announcement that the Committees will not receive testimony from the anonymous intelligence community employee whose complaint initiated the so-called impeachment inquiry,” wrote Reps. Jim Jordan, Devin Nunes and Michael McCaul in the letter to Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.
They noted that before the whistleblower complaint was released on Sept. 26, Schiff had committed to “very soon” calling the whistleblower to provide “unfiltered” testimony.
The Republicans said that Schiff reversed course “following revelations that the employee had a bias against President Donald Trump and that you had received a secret, early account of the allegations.”
On Oct. 2, The New York Times reported that the whistleblower, an unidentified CIA analyst, met with a staffer working for Schiff prior to filing his complaint with the Intelligence Community Inspector General.
Schiff’s aide directed the CIA analyst to file the complaint with the ICIG, and also briefed Schiff on the encounter.
Schiff indicated prior to the release of the complaint that he was unaware of the subject matter. He also failed to disclose that someone in his office had met the whistleblower.
Schiff said on Oct. 13 that the whistleblower no longer needs to testify because witnesses and a transcript of the Trump-Zelensky phone call validated the complaint.
That series of events and Schiff’s secrecy have led Trump and other Republicans to allege that the complaint is part of a politically-motivated “witch hunt.”
“As the so-called impeachment inquiry gathers information that contradicts the employee’s allegations, we ask that you arrange for the Committees to receive public testimony from the employee and all individuals he or she relied upon in formulating the complaint,” the Republicans said in their letter to Schiff.
The complaint centers on Trump’s actions towards Ukraine, and focuses on a July 25 phone call that Trump had with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Schiff and the chairman of other Democratic committees leading the impeachment inquiry have called a series of witnesses, mostly from the State Department, to testify behind closed doors about the administration’s Ukraine-related activities.
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By his words and actions, Schiff has convinced me that he lives in an alternate universe where only his thought and ideological desires are real; any thoughts, comments or actions that do not coincide with his reality are to be ignored and given no credence. Fifty years ago, any non-public-officeholder acting as he does would have been sued successfully for libela nd slander and probably committed in a mental institution as a risk to others and himself. But…in today’s America…he holds a position of honor and power as the head of major committee of the United States House of Representatives. Under these circumstances how can anyone not conclude that We Are Doomed?