Limbaugh identifies likely 'leaker' who spilled the beans about Trump phone call

Rush Limbaugh

The testimony from the Democrats' impeachment investigation in the U.S. House so far suggests strongly that Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a career government employee, is the "leaker" who told suspected whistleblower Eric Ciaramella about President Trump's telephone call with the president of Ukraine, Rush Limbaugh says.

Vindman, who was listening to Trump's July 25 call with the Ukraine president, has admitted he talked about it with someone "from the intelligence community."

"Well, that’s the whistleblower. Eric Ciaramella, is CIA. So in my humble opinion – and it's just my opinion and it's only my assumption – and, of course, I could be called as a witness based on this because that’s what these witnesses have. It is my opinion based on learned knowledge following these hearings that Vindman is the original leaker and that Vindman told Ciaramella (who is the whistleblower) who then went over and set all of this up with Adam Schiff," Limbaugh said Tuesday.

Democrats allege Trump was trying to coerce Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden in exchange for American aid.

However, there was no investigation, the aid was delivered and President Trump told his subordinates he did not want any "quid pro quo."

Further, House Democrats insist there was nothing suspicious about Hunter Biden being paid $83,000 a month for being on the board of the corrupt Ukrainian gas company Burisma while his father was vice president and in charge of Ukraine policy.

Hunter Biden had no experience in the gas industry.

Various career government employees now are testifying before Congress that they disagreed with what President Trump was doing.

Limbaugh said: "It is clear to me, since these people only have their opinions to offer, since they only have their assumptions to make, I’m gonna do the same thing. And I’m gonna tell you my opinion is Vindman is the source for the whistleblower, and it was almost exposed today. Adam Schiff jumped in."

He said Vindman "made the mistake of saying that he informed two people who were not on the call about the call."

Limbaugh said it amounts to "a bunch of career people who think they make foreign policy."

"And Trump has run around them. He’s done end runs around them. He’s making foreign policy without them, and their noses are out of joint, and they’re coming forth and trying to offer other reasons to explain why their noses are out of joint. But that’s all this is."

Limbaugh said Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., was trying to make the point "that it is Vindman who ran out of the room after the July 25th phone call and called his buddy Eric Ciaramella and leaked the details of the phone call to him, and then it was Ciaramella who ran over to Schiff."

He said, "That is the story, that is what happened, and it is my opinion — and my great assumption — that that is exactly the role that Vindman has played here."

Limbaugh cited Vindman's admission that he told two people who were not on the call.

One he identified as George Kent.

"And Vindman started stumbling around, and then Schiff stepped in. (summarized exchange) 'You can’t… You can’t say that! You can’t answer that. I’m stepping in here. This is a trick. This is a trick. You’re trying to get him to identify the whistleblower,' and Nunes said, 'Mr. Chairman, you don’t know who the whistleblower is — you said — and Lieutenant Colonel Vindman said he doesn’t know who the whistleblower is. How can anybody possibly identify the whistleblower here if you don’t know who it is?"

He said the pieces line up: Vindman admitted telling someone from the intel community, and Ciaramella is CIA.

Limbaugh also noted: "You know what I found fascinating, folks? Neither Lieutenant Colonel Vindman nor Jennifer Williams, the star witnesses today who were on the phone call, both of them said they knew nothing of Joe Biden threatening the Ukrainian prosecutor, they knew nothing about Joe Biden demanding the Ukrainian prosecutor be fired because he was looking into his son. They had no knowledge, they said, of any of the Biden efforts to effect internal Ukraine domestic policy. They had no knowledge of it."

But Joe Biden is on video boasting he threatened Ukrainian officials with the loss of American aid unless they fired the prosecutor who happened to be investigating the company that was paying his son.

"I don’t believe they didn’t know. I don’t know about Jennifer Williams. Lieutenant Colonel Vindman, I can’t believe they didn’t know. These people sat there for eight years while Obama denied Ukraine military aid and they didn’t say a peep about it. They didn’t say one word. They never went public. They never had a whistleblower."

It's not complicated, Limbaugh said.

"Here comes Trump totally disagreeing with the Obama administration’s foreign policy with Ukraine, setting out to change it, making sure they do get their aid, because Trump is opposed to Russia. Obama was afraid of Putin. Obama was afraid of angering Putin, which is why he denied Ukraine any assistance when Russia annexed Crimea from them. Trump came in, assessed this is not good. And he immediately set out to prepare the transfer of military assistance long promised and denied by Obama to Ukraine.

"And these people are trying to make a big deal out of the fact that it was delayed because Trump supposedly demanded an investigation. And here’s how Vindman claims it was a demand. In the transcript of the phone call, Trump casually throws off to Zelensky, the Ukrainian president (paraphrasing), 'Hey, do me a favor here. We’re looking into things here with Biden and his son, Burisma,' blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Vindman says that was not just a favor. That was the president demanding.

"How’s that? He asked for a favor. No, no, no, no, said Vindman. The president of the United States is infinitely more powerful than the president of Ukraine. And when a superior asks you for a favor, it’s not a favor, says Vindman, it is a demand."

Limbaugh's conclusion?

"So this guy is totally, totally devoted, slavishly almost as a stoolie to whatever chain of command he thinks he’s in, and is transferring that. He thinks Trump is the head of the chain of command over the president of Ukraine. In his world, the president of Ukraine is some chump who has to take orders from the president of the United States. And so when Trump asks for a favor, it’s not a favor. It’s a demand."