Trump impeachment: Whistleblower won't testify because 'president put his life at risk'

Adam Schiff says anonymous official could be put in danger – but also that their testimony is no longer needed

The Democrat leading impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump says the whistleblower might have given evidence -- until the president put their life at risk.

The anonymous official sparked the investigation against the president by making a formal complaint over Mr Trump's 25 July phone call with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky.

In that call Mr Trump appears to pressure Mr Zelensky into announcing investigations into his Democratic rivals in return for releasing US military aid to help fight a Russian-backed insurgency in eastern Ukraine.

Republicans have repeatedly demanded the whistleblower give evidence to the House Intelligence Committee, which has been holding public hearings into whether Mr Trump abused his office for his own political purposes, something he has angrily denied.

The president himself has appeared to suggest that the whistleblower, and White House aides who expressed their concerns to them, should be executed.

Adam Schiff, chairman of the Intelligence Committee, had previously said the whistleblower would testify but has since changed his mind.

Asked by Chuck Todd on NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday morning why he was no longer planning to summon the whistleblower -- thought to be a CIA official -- he said there were two reasons this would not now happen.

Mr Schiff said: "We had a deep interest in having the whistleblower testify until two things happened. One, we were able to prove everything in the whistleblower complaint with witnesses who had first-hand information.

"And second the president and his allies effectively put that whistleblower's life in danger. The president said the whistleblower and others should be treated as a traitor or a spy and we ought to use the penalty we used to use for traitors and spies and that's the death penalty.

"So here's the thing Chuck: we don't need the whistleblower's second-hand information any more. It would only serve to endanger this person and to gratify the president's desire for retribution and that is not a good enough reason to bring in the whistleblower."

In September Mr Trump told a meeting of US staff at the United Nations that the whistleblower and people who provided them with information were "close to a spy".

He said: "I want to know who's the person, who's the person who gave the whistleblower the information? Because that's close to a spy."

"You know what we used to do in the old days when we were smart? Right? The spies and treason, we used to handle it a little differently than we do now."

His comments were seen as being a reference to the death penalty. Mr Trump has also suggested that the anonymous official and their lawyers are guilty of treason, for which the punishment can be death.

Speaking to Jake Tapper on CNN on Sunday morning, Mr Schiff said it was possible that more witnesses would be called in the impeachment inquiry and he chided John Bolton, Mr Trump's former national security adviser, for not already having agreed to give evidence rather than waiting for a legal ruling on a subpeona.

Mr Bolton was quoted by former White House Russia expert Fiona Hill in her testimony last week as having described the scheme to pressure Ukraine to get involved in US politics as a "drug deal" and as having referred to the president's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani as a "hand grenade".

Referring to Mr Bolton's forthcoming memoir, Mr Schiff told CNN: "He will have to explain, one day, if he maintains that position why he wanted to wait to put it in a book instead of telling the American people what he knew when it really mattered to the country."

Asked if he thought Mr Trump should follow in the footsteps of Richard Nixon, who resigned as president in 1974 rather than face impeachment, Mr Schiff said: "Well, I certainly think he has committed the most grievous misconduct. I have no illusions about Donald Trump doing what's right for the country or what's best for the country – that's never been where he's coming from.

"What my Republican colleagues, I think, need to decide, and to search their own conscience about, is why was it that in the past that Republicans were willing to put country first ... I would hope that there will be Republicans who will be willing to step forward and say whatever the political consequences, if this was Barack Obama had done this, they would have voted to impeach him in a heartbeat, with a fraction of the evidence.

"It shouldn't matter this is a Republican president.

"I hope to hell, Jake, if this had been a Democratic president, I would be among those leading the way and saying we need to seriously consider impeaching this president."