GOP Rep. Louie Gohmert publicly identifies person purported to be whistleblower
Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) on Wednesday night publicly named a person that some Republicans and allies of President Donald Trump claim is the alleged whistleblower who first brought the Trump-Ukraine scandal to light.
Gohmert identified the person, who POLITICO is not naming, during remarks at a Judiciary Committee meeting on articles of impeachment against Trump. Gohmert named the person as he ticked through a list of witnesses he said the committee should hear from before voting on impeachment.
Gohmert did not identify the person as the potential whistleblower, but Republicans have demanded that the whistleblower be subpoenaed to testify, a call that Democrats have swatted away as irresponsible and even dangerous.
Democrats say any effort to identify the whistleblower could endanger the person's life and chill future whistleblowers from revealing alleged wrongdoing in government.
Asked by POLITICO about his decision to mention the name of the purported whistleblower, Gohmert said he was simply "naming witnesses to the case."
"I could care less who the whistleblower is," Gohmert said, repeating the name along with the names of two former National Security Council aides as witnesses he wants to hear from.
Gohmert said the person he identified was someone he considers a "fact witness." Asked if he were worried about the appropriateness of identifying the person publicly or whether he might have violated whistleblower protection statutes, Gohmert said, "You need to do your homework."
No other lawmakers on the panel or on the House Intelligence Committee have publicly named the person, though the individual’s identity has been circulated online by a small number of Trump-aligned figures and media outlets. POLITICO has not independently verified the whistleblower’s identity.
House Intelligence Adam Schiff, who led the Ukraine investigation, warned colleagues last month that any attempt by lawmakers to identify the whistleblower could be an ethics violation. He said the whistleblower had a statutory right to anonymity and to be shielded form reprisal — and he said the whistleblower also had the legal right to contact Congress.
Schiff's office declined to comment Wednesday night.
Though Democrats on the committee didn't acknowledge Gohmert's comment, one Democratic lawmaker reacted furiously.
"House Republicans just committed an incredible and outrageous breach," Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) tweeted. “The President threatened the whistleblower with violence, and whether the person just named is the whistleblower or not they were just put in real danger. This is unacceptable and there should be consequences."
