With public impeachment hearings set to begin, why are Republicans now so obsessed with the whistleblower?

Democrats have said testimony from whoever flagged the Ukraine call is now ‘redundant’ – but the GOP think they can use it to their advantage, says Chris Stevenson

Democrats want evidence of the president engineering interference in next year's election (Getty)

For a time in September and October, the whistleblower who flagged their concerns about a July call between Donald Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky found themselves at the centre of what has become a rapidly evolving, Democrat-led impeachment inquiry.

This was what many Democrats in congress had been waiting for, apparent evidence of the US president calling on another nation’s leader to interfere in the 2020 election by asking him to investigate the family of a political rival in Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden. Trump took the option to release a memo containing some record of the call, saying he had nothing to hide. However, the memo is not as clear cut as he believes.

During the past six weeks, more than half a dozen officials connected to the Trump administration have testified behind closed doors about their view of the Ukraine policy. More than 2,600 pages of that testimony have now been released – painting a picture of how controversial policy over Ukraine has become within the administration. Some officials have said actions including withholding military aid to Kiev amounted to a quid pro quo, with it bringing an expectation that Ukrainian prosecutors would look into Biden’s conduct as vice-president regarding the country or his son Hunter’s position on the board of a Ukrainian company. There is no suggestion either man has done anything wrong.

Trump has also made clear he believes he has done nothing wrong and has sent a number of Republicans from congress out to defend him. A number obliged, but as the testimony continues to appear, the main thrust has been to bemoan a “partisan” process. The GOP has demanded public hearings and will get their wish beginning this week. The Democrats will roll out a number of those who have already testified, and Republicans on the investigating committees will be able to ask questions. The GOP also has a list of witnesses they want to be called – including Hunter Biden and the original whistleblower.

Democrats are likely to call some on the list but will try to resist those two. The Sunday morning news shows in the US provided some evidence of that, with Democrat Representative Sean Patrick Maloney, who is on the house intelligence committee saying: “I think we will end up calling some of the witnesses on that list and here’s my test: Do these witnesses have important ... knowledge or evidence about the president’s conduct?”

Mr Maloney ruled out calling up Hunter Biden and the whistleblower, asking rhetorically: “What information would Hunter Biden have?” about the Ukraine phone call. The committee chairman, Democrat Adam Schiff, has said that testimony from the whistleblower would be “redundant and unnecessary” given that their anonymity is protected under whistleblower laws and the investigation has moved on beyond the need for testimony from someone who only had second-hand knowledge of the call.

Trump has repeatedly hit out at the whistleblower and called for their unmasking. The aim is to paint leading Democrats as corrupt and dismiss the whole inquiry as an attempt by those inside the US government to bring down his administration.

Democrats want to avoid the investigation being polluted with such conspiracy-level talk, as happened to some extent with Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.

We will see next week just how much they succeed.