Rep. Jim Jordan retorted during Tuesday’s impeachment hearing that even though House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff claims he doesn’t know who the whistleblower is, “no one believes” him.
The remark came after the Ohio Republican attempted to question Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman on the identity of an unnamed individual he told about the July 25 phone call between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that sparked a whistleblower complaint.
“I want to know, first, how many other people are in that group of people you communicated with,” Jordan told Vindman.
“I only read out, outside of the NSC, two individuals,” Vindman responded, noting that one of the two was George Kent, the deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs. Kent previously testified during the second day of impeachment hearings on Friday.
“And you’re not willing to tell us who that other individual is?” Jordan asked before Vindman’s response was cut off by calls of “point of order.”
“You know, as I indicated before, this committee will not be used to out the whistleblower,” Schiff said.
“I don’t see how this is outing the whistleblower,” Jordan complained. “The witness has testified in his deposition that he doesn’t know who the whistleblower is. You have said, even though no one believes you, you have said you don’t know who the whistleblower is.
“So, how is this outing the whistleblower to find out who this individual is?” he added.
Some Republicans, including Trump, have called for the identity of the whistleblower, who is allegedly career CIA analyst Eric Ciaramella, to be revealed.
Ciaramella, 33, was Ukraine director on the National Security Council during the end of the Obama administration and remained there during the early months of the Trump administration, where he was briefly acting senior director for European and Russian affairs.
While at the White House, Ciaramella was friends with an official who is now an aide to Schiff.
