During a Tuesday public impeachment hearing of the House Intelligence Committee as part of Democrats' ongoing impeachment efforts against President Donald Trump, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, called out House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff, D-Calif., for his claim that he doesn't know the identity of the so-called whistleblower.

The exchange between the two lawmakers occurred during a line of questioning when Jordan was trying to figure out whom the witness, Lt. Col. Alex Vindman, told about the July 25 phone call between President Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky. After being prompted by Vindman's attorney, Schiff warned members of the panel not to try to "out the whistleblower."

Jordan responded that he didn't see how his line of questioning could be seen as outing the employee's identity.

"The witness has testified in his deposition that he doesn't know who the whistleblower is," Jordan explained. "You have said — even though no one believes you — you have said you don't know who the whistleblower is, so how is this outing the whistleblower to find out who this individual is?"

Schiff responded, "This is your time for questioning; you can use it any way you like, but your questions should be addressed to the witness, and your questions should not be addressed to trying to out the whistleblower."

Last week, Schiff — who has previously come under fire for misleading the public about his office's contact with the employee — was criticized for simultaneously saying that efforts to publicly identify the employee would result in repercussions while claiming to not know the employee's identity.

Elsewhere in the line of questioning, Jordan asked if Vindman had ever leaked information. The NSC staffer called the idea "preposterous," saying, "I never did; never would."

The full hearing is available here.

The following is an excerpt from Blaze Media’s Capitol Hill Brief email newsletter:

Over the weekend, Democrats released the impeachment probe transcript of a witness who was actually on the July 25 phone call between President Donald Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky: National Security Council official Tim Morrison. And seeing as Republicans had previously criticized the delay of this transcript’s release and pointed to it as contrary to the pro-impeachment narrative, it only makes sense that it was released over a weekend, instead of during a work week news cycle. During his previously released, prepared statement, Morrison told congressional investigators that he didn’t believe anything said on the call was illegal; however, he was worried about "how it would play out in Washington's polarized environment” if it were to be leaked.

The testimony deals heavily with the claims and conduct of Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman — one of Democrats’ star impeachment witnesses — who worked under Morrison at the National Security Council. Morrison told congressional investigators that Vindman was worried about looking relevant at the office. Morrison also explained that he questioned the Army officer’s judgement, as did others. He also noted that he didn’t recall Vindman raising concerns with him that anything illegal or improper was said on the July 25 phone call. He also testified that Vindman never told him about the “light queries” he supposedly heard from Ukrainian officials about military aid.

Morrison also corroborated the point made in other testimony — as well as by the president himself — that Trump had concerns that “our aid would be misused because of the view that Ukraine has a significant corruption problem.”

Both Vindman and Morrison are scheduled to testify publicly on Tuesday.

Wednesday on the radio, LevinTV host Mark Levin reviewed the first day of public impeachment hearings in the House of Representatives, praising the performance of the Republicans and tearing apart the arguments floated by the Democrats.

"The Republicans did a fantastic job today. Ignore the phony media; ignore the phony legal analysts," Levin said.

Levin explained why the allegations against President Trump don't withstand honest scrutiny, noting that the allegations that Trump abused his power by pressuring Ukraine to investigate the Bidens and damage them politically falls apart if the Bidens actually did something wrong.

"Now, what if the Bidens are corrupt? I think they are; the facts suggest they are," Levin said. "So according to the press, the Democrat Party press, and the Democrats and legal analysts, the president should ignore it."

"Now that the president didn't ignore it, and he said, 'You know, you might want to look into this,' now they claim he's interfering with an election of a possible opponent!" Levin continued. "So my advice to Rudy Giuliani, who they're trying to hunt down, is this: Announce you're going to run for president. Then any effort to investigate you will clearly be an effort to interfere in your election effort."

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