Chuck Grassley defends Ukraine whistleblower, breaking with GOP and Trump

Source: NBC News


The statement by the powerful Iowa senator did not mention Trump's attacks on the whistleblower.


Oct. 1, 2019, 1:17 PM CDT / Updated Oct. 1, 2019, 2:09 PM CDT
By Dareh Gregorian

A top Republican senator Tuesday defended the whistleblower at the center of the Democrats' impeachment inquiry following repeated attacks from President Donald Trump.

"This person appears to have followed the whistleblower protection laws and ought to be heard out and protected. We should always work to respect whistleblowers’ requests for confidentiality," Sen. Chuck Grassley, head of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, said in a statement.

The Iowa Republican did not mention Trump by name, but said, "No one should be making judgments or pronouncements without hearing from the whistleblower first and carefully following up on the facts. Uninformed speculation wielded by politicians or media commentators as a partisan weapon is counterproductive and doesn’t serve the country."

Trump and some of his allies, including Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan and South Carolina Sen. Lindsay Graham, have said the identity of the intelligence community whistleblower whose complaint sparked the House's impeachment inquiry into the president should be made public, even though it's protected under whistleblower laws that Grassley helped write.




Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/chuck-grassley-defends-ukraine-whistleblower-breaking-gop-trump-n1060871