we appreciate it. to our viewers, thanks so much for watching. i'm wolf blitzer in "the situation room." you can follow me on twitter and instagram. erin burnett outfront starts right now. next, breaking news. taking witness protection to the extreme. democrats considering a secret location, special technology if the whistle-blower will testify. what has them so afraid? the president's closest allies turning on trump after a decision that could affect american security. how is the president responding. >> reporter: new concern about the damage attacks are having on joe biden. how is joe biden responding to him. let's go outfront. good evening. tonight the breaking news. going to the extreme. sources telling cnn democrats preparing to take drastic and unprecedented steps in order to protect the identity of the

whistle-blower if he or she testifies. let's not forget, president trump says he wants know the whistle-blower's identity. he has called the person a traitor suggesting he or she should be executed. this as democrats are widening their impeachment investigation, subpoenas going to more people around the president tonight. trump today defiant saying he's not afraid. >> it's lucky that i'm the president because i guess, a lot of people say very few people could handle it. i sort of thrive on it because it's so important that we get to the bottom. >> he's talking about getting to the bottom of the investigation itself. trump is not the only one who wants to get to the bottom of it. that depends on how you define it. democrats do too. their inquiry touching every part of the american government from the white house to the state department to as of today the pentagon and the office of management and budget. democrats just firing off new subpoenas targeting the defense secretary and budget chief,

demanding documents about his conversations with ukraine and about the hundreds of millions of dollars that trump withheld in military aid. the investigation could engulf his personal attorney's team. they will slap rudy giuliani personal associates with subpoenas if they don't cooperate. they have been defying requests for information. as the tentacles of this investigation spread, the president refuses to budge in his defense of that damning phone call with the ukrainian president. >> the conversation i had with the yukraine president was a vey good conversation. we had a great conversation. it's a very normal, nice conversation. >> cord yial, great, nice. the same call he asked for an investigation into joe biden. tonight more cracks are starting to appear when it comes to

republican defense of that call. rob portman now the fourth republican to slam president trump. they wills the columbus dispatch the president should not have raised the biden issue on that call. period. it's not appropriate for a president to engage a foreign government in an investigation of a political opponent. portman slammed coming as susan collins told a maine newspaper that trump's call for china to investigate biden is a big mistake and completely inappropriate. they joined senators romney and sass in condemning trump's behavior. ka caitlin collins is live out front this hour. the president spoke continuing non-stop defense. >> reporter: he's making clear how aggrieved he is saying he's been unfairly targeted so soon after the mueller investigation ended and turning the attacks around on democrats saying that people like nan scy pelosi has committed tree on t committed treason and should be impeached even though members of

congress cannot be impeached. he accuses people of what they are accusing him of. that's what we're seeing with the whole pelosi strategy and the president is continuing to ramp up his attacks. behind the scenes sources are telling cnn there was a call with republican lawmakers where they were being briefed on polling they did through trump districts like these areas that voted for president trump that are now seats that are held by democrats where they say there's higher opposition to him impeeci impeachment to support. a lot of cnn polling shows number of americans interested in an impeachment inquiry is rising. you're seeing this round the clock defense coming out as they are trying to figure out what their strategy will be as they are watching how quickly this is moving on capitol hill. >> thank you very much. i want to go to capitol hill. manu is out there. you have new reporting about those worries over the

whistle-blower's safety. when i say drastic measures, drastic is the appropriate word, right? >> reporter: it comes amid concerns after the president himself, he wanted to know the identity of the whistle-blower and also his consistent attacks against the whistle-blower's credibility and concerns that some of the president's allies may try to help him by leaking the name of this individual. as a result, behind the scenes conversations are under way with the house intelligence committee and the lawyers for the whistle-blower to discuss extreme measures to protect this person's identity. that could include doing something off sight that could do something to include having disguising this individual's voice. allowing staff or just a handful of members to interview this person in a way that they would not be able to see the person while their interviewing them. a range of things that are typically not done here on capitol hill. it's part of an effort to secure this person's testimony.

this comes amid this ramped up investigation. we have seen text exchanges showing he was aware of everything that is happening in the aftermath of the president's ask for the ukrainian president to investigate his political rival joe biden. the questions ultimately how much has he revealed and does he shed new light on efforts and concerns for the president to withhold the military aid and deny a nemeeting to the ukraini president. >> thank you very much. obviously, that testimony is going to be crucial. you remember the text mexchange that enjoy volker produced last week. i want to go to democratic congressman kim shrier. she flipped her district from red to blue in 2018. i appreciate your time. i want to start with what manu was reporting. the house intelligence committee

and lawyers for the whistle-blower is talking about extreme, drastic measures to protect this american's identity if they testify because of fear about safety to try to protect this person from trump and his allies. do you really think this is a real concern? >> i think this is absolutely a real concern. i mean we see all kinds of threats and i believe most of us have recognized since day one that although being a whistle-blower in our country is really fundamental to our democracy and that the law of the land is that whistle-blowers are protected, we have an administration that seems to see things differently. we have a president who has befriended putin and we know how whistle-blowers would be dealt with in those countries. i am absolutely concerned and i think that every step to protect the whistle-blower, him or her, and including some of our members of congress is

absolutely justified. >> manu was going through some of the possibilities. could be disguising the voice or putting a screen up or something to protect the person's identity so that republicans don't see the person. i guess the question i have for you is that i feel like if the roles were reversed and the republicans were going to deny democrats knowing who the person was, voice altering voice or putting them behind the screen, you would be yelling from the rooftops. are you worried you're falling into a partisan trap here? >> that's a really good question. how believable is your witness if your witness is then hiding in every way? i hope that my republican colleagues would have the sensibility to maintain confidentiali confidentiality. i believe that these interviews should be done without a camera and i would like to hope that all of us could rise and

understand this is a matter of patriotism and not a political issue and that the protection of whistle-blowers is fundamental to our democracy. this is not partisan. >> today democrats expanded the impeachment probe even further. i was mentioning subpoenas to the pentagon and office of management and budget. the president's personal attorney and could be others. do you expect any of these agencies to cooperate? >> look, i hope they will. i think we're seeing is people in circles closer to the president are putting up their hands and saying enough is enough. this really has gone beyond the pail and that this is un-american. we have a president who betrayed the american people, has abused his power for personal and political gain and threatened our national security, in addition to ukraines. i think that the tighter these

screws are, the more they will say i want to be on the right sidestanding by and allowing this to happen is setting a precedent for future administrations that will just not be tolerable and undermine our democracy. >> republicans are preached on impeachment polling that they had. it doesn't jibe with all the polls out there but they are talking specifically about districts that trump won in 2016 that democrats won in the midterms. they say in those districts impeachment, disapproval for impeachment far exceeds support. you flipped your district from blue to red. trump didn't win there but you did flip it. are you worried you could be barking up the wrong tree on impeachment? that you could be handing a victory to the president. >> i think it is interesting. i think this goes beyond

politics. i did flip the district from red to blue. i'm the first democratic that has represented washington district. i'm the only woman doctor in congress. i was put here for a couple of reasons. i was put here for a couple of reasons. one was to take my voice to congress and bring down prescription health care. the other is they trusted the judgment of a pediatrician. they knew i would be thoughtful about these matters. i didn't jump to this. what i want is an impeachment inquir inquiry. i think that polling depends how you ask a question. the question for me right now is do you support an impeachment inquiry? meaning do you support getting to the information, getting to the facts. from my 19 town halls, from my discussions with people all over this district, that the people in washington's 8th district want the information. they want to be able to make a good decision about who they vote for in 2020. >> i appreciate your time. thank you.

>> thank you. next, trump's former lawyer speaking out. what he's accusing democrats of doing as they are zeroing in on rudy giuliani inner's circle. one of the president's biggest supporters no longer seeing eye to eye with trump. >> i hope i'm making myself clear how shortsighted and irresponsible this decision is in my view. >> what's behind the split and would it bleed into the impeachment fight? a millionaire who like trump at the center of the impeachment investigation. you heard me right. who is he? we'll tell you. woman: what gives me confidence about investment decisions? rigorous fundamental research. with portfolio managers focused on the long term. who look beyond the spreadsheets to understand companies, from breakroom to boardroom.

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those kmemeants from john dodd is representing two associates of rudy giuliani including one who admit he arranged call between rudy giuliani and a former ukrainian prosecutor. this as a source tells cnn house democrats prepared to subpoena these individuals. paul, let me start with you. the white house has been subpoenaed, rudy giuliani, the secretary of state mike pompeo, office of management and budget. it's widening. it's clear that the response is stall and delay. who does that help more? >> i think the president thinks it's helps him. i think it will wind up helping

the democrats in the following way. they're going to make a case that the president is stone walling everything and refusing to cooperate in any way manner, shape or form. article one of the articles of impeachment will be about the cr ukraine call and orarticle two will be about his obstruction of justice and refusal to abide by lawful subpoenas from the congress. i think he's going to short circuit and this will move quicker than they expected. >> do you agree that could make it more. >> i don't know if it will go more quickly. i think the -- they need to think about focusing the investigation because they have

some what of a timeline. they want to try to wrap this up. we are in a campaign year and so there are political reasons to try to not meld this into the heightened period of the 2020 campaign and so if they are on an expedited timeline, i think it would benefit the impeachment process to focus on the most important witnesses. for example, the fact they quickly in the house democrats quickly called the state department and former state department representatives who were specifically involved in these conversations making the deal on behalf of the president with the government of ukraine, i think those people and the fact they call them quickly is important. i do think they it would be helpful to focus who they are calling for witnesses and what documents they really need. there's a lot of evidence already out there. they don't need a whole lot more. >> i guess that is the question.

the bottom line is i understand you just heard the congresswoman there from a district that had been republican, she flipped to democrat. she's trying to walk the line. if i support an inquiry, i want more information. that's what you should do but it does seem that a lot of people have reached a conclusion of what is right and what is wrong based on the information the entire american public has which is the transcript of that phone call. >> that's right. it's not just the transcript but the telephone calls and text messages from the ukrainian ambassador has exchanged. i think the facts are very clear and i agree with her that the best witnesses here are the ones who are not going to listen to the white house's order to withhold evidence. people like former ambassador volker and bill taylor who i'm sure will respond. i think by working on these two tracts by sending subpoenas that the white house routinely

refuses to honor and taking testimony from people who willing witness, the house can move as quickly as they need to. >> just a couple of moments ago and we don't have this sound in but the president was just yelled some questions by reporters and what they were yelling was did you mean what you said when you called on china to investigate the bidens which we know he did publicly the other day. he doesn't answer. another reporter follows up, what were you joking and he says thank you all very much. he had said china should look into the bidens. the reason the reporters asked the questions. it just came in. let me play it. >> were you joking? >> thank you. >> thank you very much. >> no interest in answering it. the reason that is significant is because he said what he said which is china investigate the bidens. his defenders who are trying to

say that would be okay are saying it's okay because he didn't mean it because he was joking. this is the excuse that provided for him. here they are. >> you watch what the president said. he's not saying china to investigate. >> i doubt if the china comment was serious. >> you really think he was serious about thinking that china would investigate the biden family. >> i don't think it's a real request. i think he did it to get you guys. >> they gave him an out. reporters asked him and he did not take that out. >> he didn't take it back because he said it. it's such a garbage argument to say we're supposed to believe some things the president says but we're not supposed to believe other things. the fact of the matter is that the mueller report showed that he said russia if you're listening and then hour later russia actually conducted a cyber activity to try to affect the 2016 election. we know that privately on a phone call with the president of ukraine he asked for a quote,

favor in the context of a discussion over defense and defense purchases and security assistance to ukraine. that was a private conversation that became public and now he is trying to say in public what he says in private as well. there's no reason that we shouldn't take what he says seriously. we can't have somebody who is in the office of the presidency and the commander in chief whose words don't mean anything. >> thank you both very much. i appreciate your time. next, trump's biggest backers have turned. slamming the president over hugely controversial decision today. the big question is, would this spread to impeachment in the senate? bernie sanders out walking with his wife jane after suffering heart attack. what he's saying tonight about his health. (classical music playing throughout)

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overturn e-cigarette protections. vote no on juul. no on big tobacco. no on prop c. break news, president trump responding to republican outrage over his decision to abandon a u.s. ally and immediately withdraw all u.s. troops from northern syria. >> i totally understand both sides of it but i campaigned on the fact i was going to bring our soldiers home. we're not a police force. >> senior republicans are not buying it. they are not backing their man this time. here is senator lindsey graham. >> this impulsive decision by the president has undone all the gains we've made, thrown the region into further chaos. iran is licking their chops and if i'm an isis fighter i've got

a second lease on life. those who think isis has been dpe defeated you'll see. this decision is short sighted and rirresponsible. >> that's the same lindsey graham who has parroted the president. >> this seem like a political set up. you can't get a parking ticket conviction based on hearsay. >> perhaps republicans have been looking for a way to take on the president. he's not alone. the senate minority leader mitch mcconnell slamming trump's troop pull out as precipitous saying isis is still a dangerous threat. while the gop stands against him and trump's staunch ally lindeyy graham says it ensures isis' comeback, trump is living in a totally different world on this issue. his bottom line. >> we defeated isis. we did it very quickly. very quicker than any general told us we could do.

we have some great people over there. they did it quickly. colonel, the president, we just gave you opposed on this issue. trump's allies are slamming him. does it concern you to hear what he's saying? >> absolutely. i think the move was completely ill considered and dumb to do this at this time. we spent over 50 years so far in central europe, more than 70 years in central europe after world war ii. that's something that you have to consider. we are there to keep the lid on bad things from happening. since we haven't done that completely in syria, this was a very bad time to move. what we're looking at here is

the turkish troops coming in destroying the allies we have been working with and it's a very bad thing to do. >> patrick, your reaction when you hear lindsey graham, marco rubio are coming out against the president on this move. this is after days of defending him against impeachment when it came to the ukraine call and it seems like are chomping at the bit to jump in on something. >> you're right. this really points up how much lindsey graham, marco rubio, other republicans see ukraine and the joe biden issue as partisan political issue that will be thought of in the impeachment inquiry, will be fought in the presidential campaign but this is about ukraine. it's been about protecting the president and his voter base and not getting all those voters angry at them because they're not protecting the president. with sir tyrisyria, this goes t

lot of republicans from when trump was a president rnl candidate have had concerns about him on foreign policy. they have not liked the fact, particularly, that he is broken with republican, at least part establishment orthodox that's supported the military interventions that went on in iraq, that went on in afghanistan, in syria. this was a major clash for years between president trump and john mccain. i think in that regard a lot of these republicans sort of have never quite felt good about him on foreign policy, use of military force, his desire to bring home troops and sort of what they see as kind of a geopolitical move that they clearly don't like. >> there are others, really powerful others who are jumping on board here. removing u.s. troops is happening led by the auth authoritarian autocrat is about

to invade syria. he's long wanted to do that. they have been long standing allies of the united states who fought with this country for years. trump is removing the obstacle to go after american allies. nikki haley tweeted we must always have the backs of our allies if we expect them to have our booacks. leaving them to die is a big mistake. turkey is not our friend. that's her hashtag. >> you recall jim mattis left his post at the pentagon over this very issue withdrawal from syria and his notion that the same thing that nikki haley said that america was abandoning its allies and you have a president in that instance kind of back down. here he is finally following through with something that he has long wanted to do.

as a candidate he talked about this. he felt like america was spread too thin. that allies weren't pitching in and american troops shouldn't be policeman of the world. here he is finally making good on something that he has long wanted to do. you see republicans remembering they were republicans. remembering they have been the party of national security. they've been hawks in terms of america's engagement in the world and this president winning on a very different approach to foreign policy. he may be more in line with where the country is in terms of foreign policy and engagement. >> perhaps. he cares more about that than what experts may tell him. colonel, trump also angry at talk he may have been out ma mover noouferred. he said this late today. >> i've told turkey if they do

anything outside of what we would think is humane, to use the word a second time. we talk about hong kong, we talk about this. they could suffer the wrath of an extremely decimated economy. >> the wrath of an extremely decimated economy. we hear him talk ant fire and fury with north korea. he tweeted if turkey does anything that i in my great and unmatched wisdom consider to be off limits i will totally destroy and obliterate the economy of turkey. maybe republicans would say he's joking with that. is that threat taken seriously? >> not really. it's a lot harder to do anything against turkey if you're not in the neighborhood. yes we have military bases in turkey but they will not be helpful in situation like this. you won't have any leverage and this is empty rhetoric. >> what do you make of that?

"i in my great unmatched wisdom." >> it's a president who thinks highly of himself. he called himself a very stable geni genius. he believes he's the person who has the vision. he alone can fix these issues and he believes he's delivering on campaign promise as well in a time when he's obviously facing lots of scrutiny. that his behavior with ukraine and also his behavior with calling on china to investigate joe biden. it's a tricky time for him. he's been kind of holding the line with republicans in terms of them not jumping ship but on this issue of syria is a whole different thing. >> thank you very much. next, he's a mill nar, a hotel owner. how did he end up at the center of trump's impeachment investigati

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new tonight, a millionaire trump donor at the center of the ukraine call. we're hours away from his testimony on capitol hill. you see him there. his name is gordon sondland. his text messages with fellow diplomats were released last week and they were at the heart.

before he was a diplomat, he was a gop donor with a career similar to the president. >> reporter: a wealthy donor given a large but uncontroversy role in the trump administration has been thrust into one of the biggest scandals to grip the white house. gordon sondland is testifying to congress on tuesday. now a key player in the impeachment inquiry because of his high level dealings with ukraine. >> considering your title, you're the u.s. ambassador to the eu but you've been spending a great deal of time in, kir ie. why is that? >> president trump has not only honored me with the job of the ambassador ineu but oh jobs with the ukraine. i had a wonderful how long meeting with president zelensky. that followed on the heels of

his telephone call yesterday with president trump. >> reporter: text messages released show that sondland wads well aware for the president the u.s.-ukraine relationship was deeply intertwined with the president's desire for ukraine to investigate joe biden and his son. the group message he's on is full of references to rudy giuliani. pushing a biden conspiracy theory with zero supporting evidence. the ambassador to ukraine asked the hundreds of millions of dollars in military assistance were conditioned on investigations. sondland responded, call me. a week later the ambassador said i think it's crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign. sondland denied it was saying president trump has been crystal clear, no quid pro quos of any kind. the president is trying to evaluate whether ukraine is truly going to adopt the

transparency and reforms. sondland has ended up in the hot seat in washington after a career in business. like president trump building hotels across the country and making a lot of money. >> thank you. >> reporter: in the 2016 campaign, the long time republican donor first supported jeb bush. he slammed trump for going after the gold star kahn family who lost a son in iraq but his tune soon changed. once the election was over, he donated a million dollars to trump's inauguration and secured his eu ambassadorship. he linked up with rick perry and now former special envoy kurt volker managing the relationship. >> we've been tasked with overseeing the ukraine relationship between our contacts at highest levels of the u.s. government and now the howest levels of the yukrainian

government. >> reporter: there's one more part, a message which which sondland thinks president trump wants he calls the tlideliverab. that deliverable is a public statement from the ukrainian president that joe biden and his son will be investigated. >> thank you very much. that's the deliverable but he doesn't sigh it as a quid pro quo. joe biden with a new message to supporters as he's struggling to deal with trump's attacks. it's a beautiful piece of land. so why haven't you started building? tyler's off to college... and mom's getting older... and eventually we would like to retire. td ameritrade can help you build a plan for today and tomorrow. come with a goal. leave with a plan. td ameritrade. ♪ asbut when your team is always dealing with device setups, app updates, and support calls... you can never seem to get anywhere.

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mark preston. jeff, tell me what you have learned. >> talking to a variety of advisers and supporters and doe m -- donors there's been a worry in,0 how this will play. initially in the first few days of this back and forth, biden advisers thought this was finally what he wanted. that head to head match up with the president that he had been hoping for but as it sort of increased and deepened, there was some concern inside the campaign he was not pushing back hard enough. we have seen a dramatic shift over the last several days. k coming out hard in an op-ed that he will push back but he does not want his campaign to be hijacked by this. that's the balance they are trying to find. someone said if anyone knows how this will play out, they don't know. they are uncertain about the politics of all this as we all

are. >> that seems to be the key. there's some who say this gives you the head to head. there are others who say this comes with a taint although unproven and conspiracy theory is being thrown out there. that may not play well with voters. they may say i don't want to go near >> yeah, we certainly don't know. what we're seeing is they're trying to soften joe biden up thinking if he is going to become the nominee by the time they get into april, may, june, july, august, all the way up until november of next year people would have made up their minds of joe biden. they would have believed the lies they said about joe biden. this comes at a time as jeff points out in his story where joe biden is fighting multiple fronts right now. he's fighting trump. he's fighting elizabeth warren. he's trying to protect his family. at the same time you have three democrats who have gone after joe biden on three very, very, very important issues, race. you saw that with kamala harris.

julian castro questioned his age. and then kirsten gillibrand who's no longer in the race now, she questioned his commitment to women. imagine being joe biden raight now. you are taking it from all sides. >> that's a key part of it. jeff, you have this as mark brings up elizabeth warren and how he's fending that off on the other side. we've got bernie sanders today coming out for the first time that we've seen him since his heart attack, video taking a walk with his wife. obviously he's off the campaign trail while he's recovering, but he came outside his home. and, look, this comes, jeff, as there are questions. now very impossible to avoid questions about age for bernie sanders, for joe biden, even for elizabeth warren. >> no question at all. bernie sanders, of course, says he's going to be back to the campaign trail at some point. we don't know when. we wish him the best. but the reality is the campaign was not transparent about his

heart attack. it was three days until we learned that. this does raise the bar for transparency in terms of health, i believe. joe biden has already said he will release his medical records before the iowa caucuses. i look for this to be something that's going to have to happen before that. this without a doubt raises a question. as to what mark was saying, the democrats have come after him on a variety of fronts, his rivals have, but they've not been very successful doing that. those three examples have fallen. most democrats are being very quiet and defending joe biden and saying the president is out of bounds. the question is at the debate next week is there going to be a moment where others say, look, my child would not work, you know, a broad for a company if i was in the white house. those are things biden is going to have to deal with here. so many challenges on so many fronts for the front-runner. >> mark, it does come as, you know, seeing bernie sanders again, you know, just a whole

nother set of questions for biden. when you raise race, women, age that julian castro brought up. not just for bernie sanders but elizabeth warren and biden. >> it's going to be an issue in this campaign. it's an issue because weigh have some younger candidates trying to make an issue of it. are they going to be around come iowa? questionable at best. the question is can joe biden get through the next couple of months with just a few digs. >> not have it all be about ukraine which is not what he is looking for, his donors are looking for. thank you both very much. >> sure. "out front" next, jeanne moos on the emoji that has become a new political statement.

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trump used to be symbolized by an orange? well, there's a new fruit in town thanks to impeachment. the singer lizzo slapped the peach emoji to make her point now it's on everything from t-shirts to pillow cases. you have to peel back multiple layers of meaning. there's the anatomy of a peach with that deep crease that has come to represent at lease online a derriere which explains bring lizzo was padding hers publicly making impeachment the butt of jokes is something graphic designer has been doing for a couple of years with sales of his impeachment peach pins took off after the washington post published how the sexy peach owe mow gi joined the resistance. nick cites three layers of meaning, butts, peach and impeachment. the president's alleged skin color. >> the light's no good.

i always look orange. >> he looked peach on the cover of "time magazine." someone at the white house had peach on the brain two years ago when describing president trump's goals in the mid east. promote the possibility of lasting peach. who knew it would last this long. it was even a parody of the nike logo, impeach trump, just do it. colbert used the fruit to brand a segment. >> tonight's edition of don and the giant impeach. >> it couldn't have been nicer. >> some prefer a mixed fruit cup of criticism. impeach the orange. there is impeach pie and at the library of congress cafeteria they offer peach mint crumb cake until management got wind of it and banished it. look what they gave joy bay hare on her birthday. joy got -- >> it's a peach with a to you

pay. >> i thought it was an orange. >> as marie antoinette never said, let them eat impeach cake. >> how did she manage to eat that thing? >> thanks for joining us. anderson starts right now. good evening. we begin with breaking news on the whistle-blower, now one of two and what we're learning about the extreme measures being considered to safeguard his or her identity should they testify before the house intelligence committee. this individual's complaint is of course what started this impeachment inquiry. even though the law is designed to protect those who come forward from retaliation, this is in a different league altogether as apparently are some of these security precautions being considered. sunday l sunday land serfaty is with us. >> reporter: the committee and the lawyers for the whistle-blower all to protect the identity of the