Schiff’s Outlandish Claim: “I Do Not Know” Who the Whistleblower Is

Viewers who tuned into Wednesday’s first day of public hearings in the House’s impeachment inquiry were treated to a great many unsupported claims, but Rep. Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, gets the nod for the biggest whopper of the day. After being pressed by Rep. Jim Jordan on when he would allow the committee to vote on whether or not to call the Ukraine whistleblower to appear, Schiff actually had the audacity to claim that he doesn’t know who the whistleblower is.

The whistleblower’s identity, while being carefully protected by Democrats and their cohorts in the media, is basically an open secret at this point. Anyone who digs deeper into politics than CNN already knows that his name is Eric Ciaramella, a CIA analyst who worked for John Brennan and Vice President Joe Biden during the days of the Obama administration.

But, since Schiff is determined to hide this guy’s partisan bias from the American people, everyone in Washington has to pretend that this isn’t the case. Which was why Jordan phrased his question by saying that Schiff was the only congressman who knew who the whistleblower was.

Schiff’s response: “First, as the gentleman knows, that’s a false statement. I do not know the identity of the whistleblower, and I’m determined to make sure that identity is protected.”

Uh, okay.

It is a matter of public record that a staffer working for Schiff met with Ciaramella. On August 12, the whistleblower wrote a letter to Schiff that included an attachment (most likely the first draft of the complaint he intended to file with the Inspector General). At that time, it is reported that staffers for Schiff advised the whistleblower to file his complaint.

But a month later, on MSNBC, Schiff said that he’d had no contact with the whistleblower.

“We have not spoken directly with the whistleblower,” he said on September 17. “We would like to, but I’m sure the whistleblower has concerns that he has not been advised, as the law requires, by the inspector general or the director of national intelligence, just as to how he is to communicate with Congress.”

This was given four Pinnochios by that right-wing, extremist rag known as…oh, the Washington Post!

Called out for his lie, Schiff then told CBS News: “I should have been much more clear and I said so the minute it was brought to my attention. I was referring to the fact that when the whistleblower filed the complaint, we had not heard from the whistleblower. We wanted to bring the whistleblower in at that time. But I should’ve been much more clear about that.”

First of all, that’s clearly not what you meant. Second, if your staffer advised Ciaramella to file his complaint with the inspector general…um, well then clearly you’d already spoken to him before that date.

But now we’re supposed to believe that he doesn’t know the identity of the whistleblower?

In an impeachment inquiry full of absurd lies, this may be the most egregious of them.