John Roberts Stopped Rand Paul From Asking Question With Whistleblower's Name

By Frances Langum — January 30, 2020

Rand Paul is deliberately trying to endanger the whistleblower during the Senate Impeachment Trial.

Thankfully, Chief Justice John Roberts is, in this instance, respecting the Whistleblower Protection Act. CNN:

Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky expressed frustration with Republican leadership during the Senate impeachment trial Wednesday night after it was made clear Chief Justice John Roberts would not read his question that named the alleged Ukraine whistleblower, sources with knowledge of the situation said...

But prior to the 16-hour question-and-answer period for the trial, Roberts made clear that he would not read the name of the alleged whistleblower, nor would he consider questions that would move to clearly identify the individual, the sources said. Roberts, in his role, reads each question submitted by senators.

He was able to review questions from senators who submitted them prior to the start of Wednesday's proceedings, according to two sources. Paul's question, which sources said was revised several times but explicitly would have named the alleged whistleblower, ran afoul of the line Roberts drew on the matter.

- Republican Senators threaten to call witnesses against Trump's rival to do the investigation Ukraine wouldn't do
- A Republican Senator admits their goal is to sabotage the rival
- Republican Senators hint at outing a whistleblower, whose life is in danger, to intimidate others

— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) January 30, 2020

"I trust the man behind me," says Schiff of Justice Roberts, to decide "whether a witness is material or not, whether it's appropriate to out a whistleblower or not, whether a particular passage in a document is privileged or not... it's not going to take months of litigation."

— Sam Brodey (@sambrodey) January 30, 2020

Just asked Sen. Lindsey Graham if Rand Paul effort to include alleged whistleblower’s name in a question is a good idea, and he said: “Not in this environment, but later on maybe.”

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) January 30, 2020

Update: Aqua Buddha Rand tried it again Thursday and got nowhere:

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