Legal Implications of Outing the Whistleblower
In one heated exchange during day three of the impeachment hearings, Rep. Adam Schiff cut off a line of questioning to protect the whistleblower’s identity, saying the whistleblower has “a statutory right to anonymity.” But the law he cited does not explicitly prohibit members of Congress from disclosing a whistleblower’s name.
Federal law prevents only inspectors general and their staffs from revealing the name of a whistleblower.
The dispute over the identity of the whistleblower came during the Nov. 19 testimony of Lt. Col. Alexander S. Vindman, a Ukraine expert on the White House’s National Security Council who listened in on President Donald Trump’s July 25
