Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts blocked a question from Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) submitted during the impeachment trial against President Donald Trump on Jan. 30.
Paul submitted a written question, as senators are doing today and yesterday. Roberts, the presiding officer of the trial, read the question silently before saying he would not read it out loud, effectively blocking the query.
“The presiding officer declines to read the question as submitted,” Roberts told the chamber. He gave no reason for declining to read the question.
Reports started emerging Wednesday that Roberts planned to block the question from Paul. A member of Pauls team said Thursday morning that the senator would still ask the question.
Senator @RandPaul sends question to the desk during Impeachment Trial.
Chief Justice Roberts: “The presiding officer declines to read the question as submitted.” pic.twitter.com/CCeB33HnRP
— CSPAN (@cspan) January 30, 2020
Paul took to Twitter shortly after the question was blocked and alleged that his question “is not about a whistleblower.'” He then stated the question that was blocked, which included the name of the alleged whistleblower.
“Are you aware that House intelligence committee staffer [Sean] Misko had a close relationship with [the alleged whistleblower] while at the National Security Council together?” the question stated, according to Paul.
“Are you aware, and how do you respond to reports that [the two people] may have worked together to plot impeaching the president before there were formal House impeachment proceedings?” the question read.
“My question today is about whether or not individuals who were holdovers from the Obama National Security Council and Democrat partisans conspired with Schiff staffers to plot impeaching the president before there were formal House impeachment proceedings,” Paul stated.
“My question is not about a whistleblower as I have no independent information on his identity. My question is about the actions of known Obama partisans within the NSC and House staff and how they are reported to have conspired before impeachment proceedings had even begun.”
Paul seemed to be referring to the person who filed a complaint against Trump over the presidents July 2019 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. That person met with at least one staffer of House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the lawmaker admitted after initially saying “we have not spoken directly with the whistleblower.”
Schiff has repeatedly said he doesnt know who the whistleblower is. The name of the alleged whistleblower has been reported by some media outlets but The Epoch Times isnt publishing the name because it hasnt been able to confirm the identity.Read More – Source
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