Thursday night on the radio, LevinTV host Mark Levin criticized a handful of Senate Republicans for saying that they don't want the American people to know the identity of the federal employee behind the whistleblower complaint.

Levin pointed to reports that Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., said that the federal employee's identity shouldn't be disclosed. "We protect whistleblowers. We protect witnesses in our committee," Burr told reporters on Thursday. Other Senate Republicans such as Mitt Romney, Utah, have made similar statements about shielding the employee's identity from the public.

"This is not only embarrassing to these senators," Levin said, "it is a grave disservice to the American people."

Levin rebutted the idea that the employee's identity is shielded from becoming public information, pointing out the limits of the relevant whistleblower statute, noting that the law does not guarantee plenary anonymity to any whistleblower. "There is absolutely no legal reason — none — for the so-called whistleblower's identity to be kept secret," he concluded.

"It is wholly relevant for the American people, the committee, the full Congress, and the president to know about this individual's conduct, contacts, partisanship, etc. — absolutely relevant," Levin concluded. "And that's why the Democrats, the media, and some feckless Republicans would apparently have the nation go through an impeachment process and a trial, if they have their way, without ever knowing who started it. Now that would be unconscionable, and yet that's what they insist on."

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