you keep their identity secret, precisely because revealing their identity would defeat the whole purpose of the whistleblower act. harris: republicans say they didn t ask for the identity of this person. democrats say they did, and there ensued that argument that melissa was talking about. the comes out in testimony, is that different from it leaking? and oh, by the way, who thinks it would not leak? tom: i agree with that point. yes, that s inherent in the nature of the process. if you are discussing harris: so even if they had come it would be okay? tom: it would. in other words, if people aren t simply disclosing it for the sake of disclosing it, but happens to come out or be revealed or people connect the dots by way of public testimony, that would be a violation of the law. melissa: they went to the subject s most public enemy first, adam schiff, before they went to the ig. so i don t know on the process front. that s an odd person to go to first with the information.