Fuck him...

Trump rejects offer of written answers from whistleblower

The president says the anonymous intelligence official must instead testify publicly.

By QUINT FORGEY

President Donald Trump on Monday rejected an offer by the lawyer for the anonymous whistleblower at the center of House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry to submit written answers to questions from Republican lawmakers.

“The Whistleblower gave false information & dealt with corrupt politician Schiff,” Trump wrote on Twitter, referring to House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), one of the leaders of the impeachment probe.

“He must be brought forward to testify,” the president continued. “Written answers not acceptable!”

Attorney Mark Zaid, the whistleblower’s attorney, said Sunday that he had contacted Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, to offer Republican members of that panel the opportunity to submit written questions to his client’s legal team.

The whistleblower would respond to those queries under oath and penalty of perjury, Zaid said — attempting to undercut Republican complaints regarding a lack of transparency in the Democratic-led impeachment process and to blunt skepticism toward the unknown intelligence official’s allegations.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said Sunday that he was not aware of Zaid’s proposal, and while he did not say he would refuse the opportunity to provide written questions, he stressed that the whistleblower “should come before the committee.”

The White House and its Republican allies on Capitol Hill have repeatedly attacked the whistleblower — whose identity has not been publicly confirmed — as a politically motivated bureaucrat who did not directly listen in on the July phone call in which Trump pressured the newly elected Ukrainian president to investigate his political rivals.

However, a rough transcript of the call released by the White House, as well as reported testimony by administration officials deposed as part of the impeachment inquiry, have largely backed up the whistleblower's claims.

In addition to detailing the discussion between Trump and Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, the whistleblower also described alleged efforts by White House officials to “lock down” records of the conversation.

Trump over the weekend ramped up his calls for the whistleblower's name to be exposed, and homed in Monday on reports from last month of a second whistleblower Zaid said he was representing who purported to have first-hand knowledge of some of the allegations in the initial complaint.

“Where is the 2nd Whistleblower? He disappeared after I released the transcript,” Trump tweeted. “Does he even exist? Where is the informant? Con!”