Report: House Democrats consider hiding whistleblower’s identity from GOP during testimony

House Democrats may employ dramatic measures to protect the identity of a whistleblower who filed a complaint against President Donald Trump, The Washington Post reported late Monday.

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Democrats are considering having the whistleblower testify at a remote site, or they may obscure the person’s voice and cover his or her face as they answer questions from House members, the Post reported.

Three officials who were not named but are said to be familiar with discussions about the measures to protect the whistleblower’s identity told The Post that there are concerns that the president’s supporters on the Republican side will leak the person’s identity, putting him or her in danger.

Other plans being considered are audio-only testimony or having the whistleblower testify from behind a partition.

According to House leadership, it was the whistleblower's complaint that led Democrats to seek an impeachment inquiry. The inquiry, which was announced by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sept. 24, concerns a phone call Trump made in July to the president of Ukraine.

The phone call, according to Trump critics, had the president leveraging his power to hold $400 million in aid to Ukraine in exchange for help in gathering information on former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden.

Trump says the call congratulating Volodymyr Zelensky on becoming president of Ukraine was “perfect” and has been misinterpreted.

Trump claims that Hunter Biden profited from an affiliation with a Ukrainian gas company and that Joe Biden had a prosecutor who was looking into the operations of the gas company fired to protect his son. Neither Biden has been officially accused of wrongdoing.

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