GOP Rep. Brooks: ‘Under the Sixth Amendment’ the Whistleblower’s Identity Should Be Revealed

Some are warning of the worst should the identity of the so-called whistleblower behind a report alleging President Donald Trump committed wrongdoing in a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky be revealed.

However, according to Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL), who has served as both a prosecutor and defense attorney prior to serving in the U.S. House of Representatives, two of the key aspects of these allegations fail to meet standards for impeachment — the transcript of the call, which he said showed nothing impeachable and the whistleblower report, which he said lacked “probative” value.

“There are two parts to it,” Brooks said on Huntsville, AL radio WVNN’s “The Jeff Poor Show.” “One is the transcript of the conversation between the Ukraine president and Donald Trump, and there is zero evidence of an impeachable offense in that transcript. And then you got the whistleblower’s report, which is 100% gossip, rumor and hearsay. Now keep in mind, I have legal training. That means that I have to some degree an idea of what evidence is probative that has weight and what does not. And there is zero in the whistleblower’s complaint of any probative value. None of that would be allowed in a court of law because it is all rumor mill, hearsay — all that kind of stuff.”

Brooks went on to add that the whistleblower’s identity should be revealed based on the Sixth Amendment, which he argued allows the accused to confront his accuser.

“Personally, I’m pushing right now for that whistleblower to be disclosed, revealed,” he continued. “Under the Sixth Amendment, a person accused of a crime has the absolute right to confront his accusers. And that includes for little itty bitty offenses like shoplifting or various traffic offenses. And if the accuser has to be publicly revealed under those circumstances, by golly shouldn’t it apply to when an accuser anonymously is claiming that the president of the United States has committed the kinds of offenses that embody impeachment? And so, I want this accuser revealed. These people who hide behind curtains and make serious accusations — I’m sorry, but that’s not the way a judicial proceeding is supposed to operate, nor should it be the way that an impeachment proceeding should operate.”

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