What Americans need to know about the “whistleblower” case:
• President Donald Trump called the House impeachment proceedings a “witch hunt.”
• The president has called the “whistleblower” a traitor that deserves the death penalty.
• Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has said, “I will not accept a trial in the Senate until I know who the whistleblower is,” adding that the whistleblower “must be exposed” “so that President Trump can confront his accuser.”
• The Whistleblower Protection Act was first introduced in the U.S. Senate on Jan. 25, 1989, by Michigan Democratic Sen. Carl Levin. It passed the Senate by a 97-0 vote (three not voting) including both South Carolina senators, Republican Strom Thurmond and Democrat Fritz Hollings, and by voice vote in the House.
• President George H.W. Bush signed the bill on April 10, 1989. It has been a federal law on the books since then.
• Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley, a Republican, said, “This person (the whistleblower) appears to have followed the Whistleblower protection laws and ought to be heard out and protected.”
• The whistleblower’s report about the president’s July 25 phone call has already been substantiated by witnesses who heard that phone call directly.
