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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsNunes Aide Is Leaking the Ukraine Whistleblower's Name, Sources Say
A top aide to Rep. Devin Nunes has been providing conservative politicians and journalists with informationand misinformationabout the anonymous whistleblower who triggered the biggest crisis of Donald Trumps presidency, two knowledgeable sources tell The Daily Beast.
Derek Harvey, who works for Nunes, the ranking Republican on the House intelligence committee, has provided notes for House Republicans identifying the whistleblowers name ahead of the high-profile depositions of Trump administration appointees and civil servants in the impeachment inquiry. The purpose of the notes, one source said, is to get the whistleblowers name into the record of the proceedings, which committee chairman Adam Schiff has pledged to eventually release. In other words: its an attempt to out the anonymous official who helped trigger the impeachment inquiry.
On Saturday, The Washington Post reported that GOP lawmakers and staffers have repeatedly used a name purporting to be that of the whistleblower during the depositions. The paper named Harvey as driving lines of questioning Democrats saw as attempting to determine the political loyalties of witnesses before the inquiry. A former official told the Post that Harvey was passing notes [to GOP lawmakers] the entire time ex-NSC Russia staffer Fiona Hill was testifying.
Exposing the identity of the whistleblower and attacking our client would do nothing to undercut the validity of the complaints allegations, said Mark Zaid, one of the whistleblowers attorneys. What it would do, however, is put that individual and their family at risk of harm. Perhaps more important, it would deter future whistleblowers from coming forward in subsequent administrations, Democratic or Republican. Zaid has represented The Daily Beast in freedom-of-information lawsuits against the federal government.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/devin-nunes-aide-is-leaking-the-ukraine-whistleblowers-name-sources-say
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)he or she understood how vicious and vengeful, and determined to destroy, the Republicans would be.