Lt. Colonel Vindman and the Whistle Blower

Hat tip Red State

“I do not know who the whistleblower is, that is correct,”

I listened to much of the testimony today of Lt Colonel Alexander Vindman and State Department official Jennifer Williams. Unlike some, I will not question Vindman’s military service or his devotion to the United States. I do have questions about his judgment in taking the actions that he did.

However, there is something else that  troubles me about Vindman, something in his testimony that I am not sure squares. It has to do with the “anonymous whistle blower”. Vindman testified today that he does not know the identity of the whistle blower. Indeed, Adam Schiff short circuited that line of questioning in the interest of not revealing the identity of the whistle blower, who even he (Schiff) claims not to know his identity. Of course, we know that the name is out there and all over the Internet. It has also been widely reported that the whistle blower has no direct knowledge of the call and that he went to Schiff’s office to spill the beans. That complicates matters greatly for Schiff, who, in spite of this conflict of interest, continues to chair the impeachment hearings.

In his testimony today, Vindman stated the names of those he told about the July 25 conversation between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. In addition to those named, Vindman said that he told one other member of the intelligence community, whom he refused to name. When the Republican questioning seemed to suggest that the person Vindman relayed his concerns about the phone call to was, in fact, the whistle blower, Schiff jumped in. That seems to me to indicate that there is, indeed, a connection between Vindman and the whistle blower-not just that they know each other and work(ed) together, but that Vindman is the whistle blower’s source. Red State came to the same conclusion earlier this month after a transcript of Vindman’s closed door testimony was released.

So here is my question: Is the whistle blower (leaker) the unnamed person Vindman told about the call, and if so, how does that square with his testimony that he doesn’t know who the whistle blower is? Was Vindman the source of the whistle blower’s second-hand knowledge?

This leads to the question as to why Schiff will not bring the whistle blower in to testify since he is the one who started this mess in the first place and his identity is out there anyway? The answer seems to me that this would open the door for the Republicans to question the whistle blower about his contacts with Adam Schiff’s staff or even, possibly, Schiff himself. How can a man who had a role in orchestrating the whistle blowers actions be chairing the impeachment committee?

Adam Schiff and Lt Colonel Vindman are walking on thin ice.