The media is reporting today that the Ukraine whistleblower’s attorneys have agreed to have him answer questions from Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee.

Here’s a sample:

BREAKING: Whistleblower is willing to answer Republicans' questions in impeachment probe, lawyer says https://t.co/Gi33GozeOO pic.twitter.com/EnVRWep4iI

— CBS News (@CBSNews) November 3, 2019

Sounds good, right? Except not exactly.

What his attorneys are offering Republicans is that he answer questions from them in writing, according to the Daily Caller.

The problem?

Of course, that wouldn’t allow any cross-examination which would be necessary to get to the heart of his contacts with Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) or others. Often written questions can enable you to avoid deeper questioning by giving answers which might not hold up under cross-examination. Or you can resort to legalisms to avoid answering some things.

As part of this deal, Republicans also wouldn’t be able to ask the whistleblower any questions about his identity which means his connection allegedly to Joe Biden or others might not be able to be pursued.

Now, it’s possible that they might go for it anyway just to see what they would get from him and it does perhaps enable them to get questions that are not restricted by Democrats, but don’t bet they would get much.

They will likely get answers that were just run-arounds with the whistleblower’s attorney’s trumpeting, “He complied!”

Tammy Bruce makes another good point – that this offer is really about trying to figure out how much the GOP knows already.

😂 “… if lawmakers submitted written questions to the whistleblower's legal team.” They’re looking to find what GOP knows & doesn’t know about their client prior to release of the Horowitz report. They have no intention of seriously participating or answering any questions. https://t.co/6ttNI9Did8

— Tammy Bruce (@HeyTammyBruce) November 3, 2019

Why is he willing to talk with Schiff and his aide but not the GOP? Makes one wonder what he has to hide.

In addition to questions of contacts with Schiff and his aide, connections with Democrats, the “whistleblower” wasn’t even on the call, so anything he heard about it was hearsay. We already have the transcript which has already proven that things he has said are untrue.

But it’s interesting that the whistleblower’s complaint came after the flameout of the Mueller testimony on July 24, after Democrats would have realized that they basically had nothing left there. The complaint was filed on August 12 after talking with Schiff’s committee aide who said he could file a complaint with the ICIG.

The whistleblower’s attorneys have already tried to stop journalists from publishing the alleged name of the whistleblower, saying in a statement that media would be “personally liable” if the whistleblower were harmed. While government whistleblowers cannot be identified by their government agencies, journalists are not prevented from identifying them.

OAN tried to track down the man alleged to be the whistleblower, Eric Ciaramella, to confirm if indeed he was, but the reporter was unable to locate him where he was believed to be at his parents’ home.