Schiff: Whistleblower testimony might not be necessary

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) on Sunday said that testimony from the intelligence community whistleblower at the center of the House impeachment inquiry against President Trump may no longer be necessary.

“Given that we already have the call record, we don’t need the whistleblower who wasn’t on the call to tell us what took place during the call,” he told Margaret Brennan during an interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

“Before the president started threatening the whistleblower … we were interested in having the whistleblower come forward. Our primary interest right now is making sure that that person is protected,” he added.

.@RepAdamSchiff says the House Intel committee was interested in having the whistleblower speak to the committee, but is now focused on making sure their identity is protected. pic.twitter.com/2KYzHmopEV

— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) October 13, 2019 

The whistleblower wrote a complaint about a July 25 phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, during which Trump pressed his counterpart to open an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son.

{mosads}The complaint was released to the public last month shortly after House Democrats launched an impeachment inquiry based on information about the call that had been made public.

The White House also previously released a readout of the call, which confirmed much of the substance of the whistleblower’s complaint.

Trump has accused the whistleblower of being biased against him and not having trustworthy information about the call, despite releasing the transcript.

The lawyers representing the whistleblower have expressed concern for their client’s safety given Trump’s comments.