John Roberts refuses Rand Paul’s whistleblower question

Chief Justice John Roberts refused on Thursday to read aloud a question from Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) that sought to identify the alleged whistleblower who first raised concerns with investigators that President Donald Trump pressured Ukraine to investigate his political rivals.

“The presiding officer declines to read the question as submitted,” Roberts said after appearing to read the question to himself.

Paul had signaled his intention to ask the question on Wednesday, raising alarms that he intended to out the anonymous complainant. Defenders of the president say the whistleblower should not be protected because he may have harbored a political bias against Trump, but Democrats have argued that the whistleblower’s account has largely proven accurate, confirmed by subsequent witnesses — and that naming him publicly could endanger his life.

Paul, a longtime antagonist of Republican leaders, arose from his seat as the first GOP senator to offer a question at the start of Thursday’s session of the impeachment trial. He said the question was specifically directed to Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the lead House manager, and to the president’s lawyers.

Roberts communicated to senators on Wednesday that he would not read questions that outed the alleged whistleblower, prompting Paul to complain afterward. Just before Thursday’s session began, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) appeared to warn senators, urging them to continue respecting Roberts’ role as the presiding officer of the impeachment trial. Leaders expected Paul to make a second attempt anyway.

Schiff first revealed the existence of the whistleblower complaint publicly in mid-September, when he subpoenaed the document from the director of national intelligence and accused him — under the influence of the White House — of preventing it from reaching Congress.

Schiff and other Democrats indicated that the intelligence community’s inspector general had deemed the complaint “urgent” and credible, triggering a requirement to notify Congress — but instead, DNI Joseph Maguire sought input from the Justice Department, which rejected the IG’s determination.

Source: https://www.politico.com/news/2020/01/30/john-roberts-rand-paul-whistleblower-109527
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Kyle Cheney and Andrew Desiderio

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