- The whistleblower at the center of the impeachment inquiry into US President Donald Trump has agreed to testify before US Congress, US House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said.
- Schiff told ABC’s “This Week,” in an interview, that he expects the whistleblower to testify “very soon.”
- The hearing is expected to take place as soon as measures are completed to protect the whistleblower’s identity.
- “We’ll get the unfiltered testimony of that whistleblower,” Schiff said.
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The whistleblower whose complaint laid the foundation for an impeachment inquiry into US President Donald Trump has agreed to testify before US Congress, according to US House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff.
The Committee reached an agreement with the whistleblower to testify before Congress “very soon,” Schiff, a representative from California, said in an interview with George Stephanopoulos during ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday.
“We’ll get the unfiltered testimony of that whistleblower,” Schiff said.
Schiff expects the testimony to take place as soon as measures can be completed to protect the whistleblower’s identity. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence is working through the security clearance process for the whistleblower’s lawyers. “As you can imagine with the President issuing threats like we ought to treat these people who expose my wrongdoing as we used to treat traitors and spies and we used to execute traitors and spies, you can imagine the security concerns here,” Schiff said.
A spokesperson for the Committee could not be reached by phone or email on Sunday.
The whistleblower - reportedly a CIA officer who was once assigned to work with the White House - filed in August a complaint that alleged, among other things, that White House officials believed they saw Trump "abuse his office for personal gain" in a July phone call with Volodomyr Zelensky, president of Ukraine.
The complaint, which was declassified last week, alleges that Trump pressured Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, who is competing for the Democratic nomination to run against Trump for president, and help discredit the Russia investigation.
In light of the revelations, US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced last week a formal impeachment inquiry into Trump.