pull forces from northern syria, clearing the way for a tush turkish attack on our allies in our war against isis. and calling foulch the nba under attack for apologizing to china for a general manager s tweet supporting hong kong protesters, is one of america s port league putting money over principle. i m wolf blitzer and you re in the situation room . announcer: this is cnn breaking news. we re following breaking news. including some fast-moving new developments in the impeachment inquiry into president trump. sources are now telling cnn that the house intelligence committee and lawyers for the whistle-blower who filed a complaint about the president, they are now discussing what are being described as extreme measures to protect the individual s identity, due to growing safety concerns. also breaking this hour, house democrats are now threatening to
donald trump and his republican allies to keep attacking this first whistle-blower because again you have somebody else who is corroborating what the whistle-blower said in addition to everything that the democrats already have. the text messages that came out of the volker testimony, some of the other witnesses that likely came out of the i.g.i.c. and the memo of the transcript and in addition to just the road map that the whistle-blower complaint provided. so the more people you get in on this, in terms of showing that they have problems with what the president said in those conversations, i think the harder it is going to be. i think the republicans and certainly donald trump will still try to tear down the credibility of everyone who comes out. deep state. the deep state. that is their whole criticism of this thing, there is this whole plot beginning from when the president ran for office to bring him down. you ve heard some of the president s supporters in the senate and els
we re following multiple breaking stories including new subpoenas and demands for documents in the rapidly-expanding impeachment investigation of president trump. as we re learning attorneys for the house intelligence committee are discussing what is described as extreme measures to protect the identity of the original whistle-blower if that person does testify. let s get insight from our political and legal experts. jeffrey toobin, do you think the extreme measures to protect the whistle-blower are necessary. i sure do. and let me give you three words why. christine blasey ford. think about that woman who was you could say the whistle-blower in the brett kavanaugh confirmation hearings whose life was turned upside down, who was harassed, who has at least for many months couldn t live in her house and that is minor league baseball compared to the world cease of an impeachment situation.
information. how valuable might this second whistle-blower be? well, wolf, it is what you said. firsthand knowledge. so the knock on the first whistle-blower was, well this is all secondhand and hearsay and that is the trump spin. i will note everything that we know in the whistle-blower complaint jives with what we know about the ukraine call and everything else thus far despite donald trump s claims to the contrary. but firsthand knowledge and intelligence community confirmation affirmation, a stronger foundation on which democrats will look to probe the president. if, nia, the second whistle-blower was listening in on the phone call and saw the transcript sort of rough transcript that even the white house said wasn t an official transcript, saw it and it has complaints about what was in that so-called transcript or other relevant information, that could be very significant if that person has that firsthand kind of knowledge. that is right. very significant and hard for
displayed in his complaint. do you trust republican lawmakers to protect this official, this whistle-blower, from exposure? i d like to trust the secrecy of our our identity of whistle-blower and other important facts to all members of our committee. however, the fact of the matter is that we can t guarantee 100% assurance or safety for this whistle-blower in the current situation using normal methods or measures. and so that is why we have to resort to these extreme measures which you described. do you think this person, this whistle-blower s life is actually potentially in danger? i don t know about that. and i can t comment on that. that being said, what the president has said in terms of calling him or her a spy, or their associate spies and they would be handled a certain way