Sept. 29 (UPI) — House intelligence committee chairman Adam Schiff said Sunday that the whistleblower who filed a complaint about a call between President Donald Trump and Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky has agreed to testify before a congressional committee.
Appearing on ABC News This Week, the Democrat from California said House lawmakers had settled an agreement with the whistleblower’s lawyers to ensure that there are precautions to protect his or her identity during the testimony.
“That whistleblower will be allowed to come in without White House or DOJ lawyers to tell him or her what they can or can’t say,” Schiff said, comparing the situation to acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Mcguire’s testimony on the issue Thursday. “We are taking all the precautions we can to protect the whistleblower’s identity.”
He added the testimony will take place as soon as the director of National Intelligence can complete the security clearance process.
Shiff also mentioned the potential for security risks after Trump condemned the whistleblower at a private event in which he described the person who informed the whistleblower of the call as similar to a spy, in audio released by The Los Angeles Times.
“Who’s the person who gave the whistleblower the information? Because that’s close to a spy,” Trump said. “You know what we used to do in the old days when we were smart? Right? The spies and treason, we used to handle it a little differently than we do now.”
Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani called for Schiff to be removed, saying he would not cooperate with the House intelligence committee under his leadership unless directed by Trump to do so.
“If he decides he wants me to testify, of course I’ll testify, even though I think Adam Schiff is an illegitimate chairman,” Giuliani said on This week. “He has already prejudged the case. If we want fairness here, we’ve got to put somebody in charge of the committee who has an open mind.”
Giuliani defended his decision to press the Ukrainians to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, which has led to Congress to launch an impeachment inquiry.
“Everything I did was to defend my client and I am proud of having uncovered what will turn out to be a massive pay-for-play scheme,” he said referring to the dismissal of Ukraniane’s former prosecutor general, Viktor Shokin, who had been investigating Burisma, a gas company which Biden’s son served on the board for.
Also Sunday, Trump’s former homeland security adviser Tom Bossert criticized the president’s attorney for repeating what he described as a “conspiracy theory” that Ukraine and not Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election.
“At this point, I am deeply frustrated with what he and the legal team is doing and repeating that debunked theory to the president. It sticks in his mind when he hears it over and over again,” Bossert said on This Week.
Giuliani responded by saying that Bossert “doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”
“I’m not peddling anything,” he said.
White House policy adviser Stephen Miller told Fox News Sunday in an interview the whistleblower complaint “drips with condemnation, condescension and contempt for the president.”
He added: “The president of the United States is the whistleblower and this individual is a saboteur trying to undermine a democratically elected government.”
When host Chris Wallace countered the inspector general found the complaint “credible and a matter of urgent concern,” Miller responded: “They’re wrong.”