Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) reiterated his stance that whistleblowers should be protected in light of President Trump’s call for a public whistleblower testimony.
But unlike his defense of whistleblower protections last month that did not explicitly mention Trump, Grassley on Monday directly responded to the President, who renewed his crusade over the weekend to expose the whistleblower’s identity.
“The law protects the whistleblower,” Grassley told reporters, according to CNN. “I’m an advocate for whistleblowing and passed all these whistleblower protection laws, so I can only say we have to go by what the law says.”
Grassley added that he wants “maximum protection for whistleblowers” and repeated his claim that he “has advocated for whistleblowers for a long period of time, including this whistleblower.”
CNN reported that Grassley also mentioned that he has not spoken with Trump about his latest whistleblower attacks and that he’d only discuss the matter with the President “if he asked me to discus it with him.”
Last week, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said he told Grassley that he would “absolutely” return the chairmanship of the Senate Judiciary Committee to the Iowa Republican in the next Congress.
