Graham: Intel Committee will call 'whistleblower'

FPI / February 3, 2020

"I want to understand how all this crap started.”

That is what Sen. Lindsey Graham told Fox News on Sunday in saying that the Senate Intelligence Committee plans to call the whistleblower, whose complaint fueled the Democrats’ partisan impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump, to testify.

"The Senate Intel Committee under Richard Burr has told us that they will call the whistleblower," Graham, South Carolina Republican, said on Fox News's Sunday Morning Futures.

Republicans have accused House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff of being "complicit" with the whistleblower. The whistleblower reportedly met with a House Intelligence Committee aide seeking guidance before filing the complaint. Schiff also reportedly recruited two former National Security Council aides who worked alongside the CIA official some believe to be the whistleblower at the NSC in the Obama and Trump administrations.

"If the whistleblower is a former employee of — associate of Joe Biden, I think that would be important. If the whistleblower was working with people on Schiff’s staff that wanted to take Trump down a year-and-a-half ago, I think that would be important. If the Schiff staff people helped write the complaint, that would be important. We’re going to get to the bottom of all of this to make sure this never happens again," Graham said.

Burr, North Carolina Republican, said last year he "absolutely" wanted to hear from the whistleblower.

Graham, who is the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said two other investigations will be taken up in the Senate. He said the Foreign Relations Committee, of which he is also a member, will look into Biden's alleged conflicts of interest, and the judiciary panel will "deal with all things FISA."

"Let me tell Republicans out there. You should expect us to do this. If we don’t do it, we’re letting you down. I guarantee you: if the shoe were on the other foot, Democrats would be eating us alive if Republicans had done any of these things."

Free Press International