Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky was fantastic in calling for the press to publicize the name of the still-anonymous government employee who has kicked off an impeachment. But Paul is going to look very stupid if no news outlet does it in the next few days and he himself won’t do it either, despite admitting that he knows who it is.
There is absolutely no argument in favor of keeping the so-called “whistleblower” anonymous that outweighs the counter. We’re heading toward an impeachment, the first step in unseating the legitimately elected president of the United States. Everything needs to be on the table.
Lawyers for the career government employee are offering two grave reasons for keeping his anonymity, which are being stupidly parroted by the media. First, they say that there’s some law somewhere guaranteeing his anonymity and that outing him would be a legal violation. That’s not true — there is no such law and that’s why they never specifically name one.
They also say that outing the career government employee will put his life at risk. There is no evidence of this, either. Stefan Halper covertly worked with the FBI to spy on President Trump’s 2016 campaign. His identity was eventually reported by multiple major news outlets, including the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and New York Magazine. He’s still alive and kicking, last I heard.
Valerie Plame was a CIA employee. When her identity was published, nothing happened, except that she became a bit of a celebrity and a political cause for some people. She keeps a low profile these days as a frequent cable news guest and candidate for Congress.
It’s obvious why keeping the “whistleblower’s” identity secret is crucial to Trump’s political opponents. This person’s biography will discredit his account. (True, there are reports as to who the person is “allegedly,” but we need someone official to remove that qualifier.)
Everyone should have expected that, though. This impeachment push is over a political disagreement that this guy had with Trump, not a legal transgression.
If the “whistleblower” had overheard Trump confess to a murder, then sure, I’d understand the justification for anonymity. But that’s not what happened. What happened is that he gathered a bunch of gossip about a phone call Trump had with a foreign leader and he didn’t like the way it went.
Feeling uneasy about approaches to policy and politics is normal, but this is impeachment.
Rand Paul says he knows the identity of the person who started this whole thing. He was right to push the news media to publish his name, but if they won’t, Paul needs to do it himself.
He’ll be a patriot for doing so.
