Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz defended the anonymity of a whistleblower whose complaint about President Trump’s conduct toward Ukraine sparked an impeachment effort.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, strayed from asking the Justice Department watchdog about his investigation into alleged surveillance abuses against the Trump campaign during the 2016 election to ask about the rights of whistleblowers.
“You previously told this committee that whistleblower rights and protections have been one of your highest priorities since becoming IG. As you know, there have been calls for the Ukraine whistleblower to be identified publicly even though that person was not a direct witness to the events. So what is your view? Should the Ukraine whistleblower’s confidentiality be breached and that person identified publicly? And why not?” Feinstein asked Horowitz on Wednesday.
Horowitz said protecting whistleblowers has been one of his highest priorities since he became the department’s inspector general.
“Whistleblowers have a right to expect complete, full confidentiality in all circumstances, it’s in the law in the IG Act that Congress wrote. And it’s a very important provision,” he said.
Republicans sought to bring in career CIA analyst Eric Ciaramella, who they allege is the official who submitted a whistleblower complaint to the Intelligence Community inspector general, to testify during impeachment proceedings against Trump.
Ciaramella, 33, was Ukraine director on the National Security Council at the end of the Obama administration and was briefly acting senior director for European and Russian affairs in the early months of the Trump administration. He is now a deputy national intelligence officer for Russia and Eurasia on the National Intelligence Council.
Lawyers for the whistleblower, who have not confirmed or denied whether they are representing Ciaramella, said any attempts to out their client is the “pinnacle of irresponsibility.”
