The whistleblower who prompted an impeachment inquiry into U.S. President Donald Trump never met or spoke with Rep. Adam Schiff, the Democrat leading impeachment hearings in Congress, a source familiar with the whistleblower's contacts said.
In the weeks before Wednesday's first public hearing in the impeachment inquiry, Republicans on the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee and other Trump supporters have suggested that Schiff personally met with the whistleblower.
"Remember how we got here?" U.S. Rep. Devin Nunes, the senior Republican on the committee, told a Sinclair Broadcasting reporter in mid-October. "This was the chairman of the Intelligence Committee meeting with the whistleblower, and then the whistleblower going forward and hiring an attorney and then moving on from there."