WATCH: Rand Paul Reads Out Impeachment Trial Question on Whistleblower That Chief Justice Roberts Rejected

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) called out the alleged Ukraine whistleblower again in a floor speech Tuesday, after Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts refused his question at President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial because it identified the individual.

Paul, during an address about Trump’s impeachment, read out the question he asked Roberts while standing next to a large poster that bore the same inquiry. This was the same question Roberts declined to read out last week during the question and answer segment of the president’s trial.

Paul’s question included the name of a CIA analyst who has been accused of being the whistleblower for months after — an unconfirmed report identified him as such. (No major outlet has yet identified the individual.) Paul is one of several Trump defenders who have tried to out the whistleblower ever since the Ukraine scandal began, and he submitted his question even after Roberts warned he would reject any attempts to identify the whistleblower.

After Paul’s question was rejected, he published it on Twitter while arguing that it was “not about a ‘whistleblower’” because he doesn’t know for sure who it is. The senator spoke about this to CNN’s Manu Raju and claimed Roberts was actually the one who outed the whistleblower by rejecting the question.

Paul also defended his decision to draw attention to someone named as whistleblower in press reports.
“I think it’s very important that we know if there was a concerted government plot to bring the president down by a lot of employees.”

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) February 4, 2020

Watch above, via C-SPAN.