Himes Statement on Criminal Referral of Impeachment Whistleblower

Washington, DC— Ranking Member of the House Intelligence Committee Jim Himes today released the following statement: “The whistleblower who made Congress aware of Donald Trump’s efforts to extort Ukraine and falsely smear his opponent followed all the rules and demonstrated courage and principle. No amount of sycophantic lickspittle will erase the fact that the ‘perfect’ call was released, and the American people could see Trump’s corruption and abuse of power firsthand. This apparent criminal referral will amount to nothing because no misconduct occurred, but what it will do is chill future whistleblowers from coming forward to Congress with confidence that the law will protect them. I suspect that is precisely the point.”