House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., has two former National Security Council aides on staff who previously worked with the whistleblower who complained about the president’s phone call with Ukraine, the Washington Examiner reports.
The whistleblower is reportedly an NSC official and a career CIA analyst who worked in the previous administration. Two of Schiff’s aides, who were both hired in the last two years, worked at the NSC before joining the congressman’s committee staff. President Donald Trump complained about their hiring, claiming Schiff was stealing staffers from the White House.
An aide to Schiff said in February, when one aide was hired, "We have hired staff for a variety of positions, including the committee's oversight work and its investigation. Although none of our staff has come directly from the White House, we have hired people with prior experience on the National Security Council staff for oversight of the agencies, and will continue to do so at our discretion."
Schiff claimed he hadn’t spoken to the whistleblower before their complaint was made public, telling MSNBC that "We have not spoken directly with the whistleblower. We would like to. But I’m sure the whistleblower has concerns that he has not been advised, as the law requires, by the inspector general or the director of national Intelligence just as to how he is to communicate with Congress, and so the risk for the whistleblower is retaliation."
A spokesperson for Schiff later admitted that "the whistle-blower contacted the committee for guidance," according to Politifact. Schiff later claimed he hadn’t been sure at the time if the whistleblower who contacted him was the same one who submitted the complaint about the Ukraine phone call.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.