Trump and his shameless defenders have been fixated on the whistleblower since the story broke in September. In the beginning, there was just the whistleblower’s complaint: one source of information. However, once the proverbial rock was unearthed and the complaint was corroborated many times over, the whistleblower’s role in the impeachment inquiry became irrelevant. And as we hear witness after witness testify before the House Intelligence Committee, the greatest political scandal in American history continues to unfold before our eyes.

We’ve heard, and will continue to hear, testimony from members of the State Department and the military. This testimony has been been incredibly damaging to the Trump administration. The whistleblower’s initial complaint of wrongdoing has been corroborated by every testifying witness, as well as the White House’s own transcript of the now-infamous phone call.

Despite the legitimacy and consistency of facts gathered by the House Intelligence Committee, Trump, the GOP, and the right-wing media continue to obsess over the whistleblower. The reason for this is simple: it’s a distraction. The identity of the whistleblower, by law, must remain anonymous. The whole point of having laws to protect whistleblowers is to make people feel comfortable about coming forward when they witness or suspect wrongdoing.

The Republicans know the whistleblower’s identity must remain anonymous, but they will continue to harp on it because they have no reasonable defense. They can’t argue it didn’t happen because it did. They can’t argue that it did happen but it’s perfectly legal because it’s not. Therefore, the only thing they can do is cast doubt by conspiring to misinform the public.

There’s an old legal saying: “If you have the facts on your side, pound the facts. If you have the law on your side, pound the law. If you have neither on your side, pound the table.” The whistleblower is part of the pounding on the table. They know the whistleblower’s identity is sealed, so they use it to conjure up a manufactured conspiracy. They put the whistleblower’s name on their witness list so they can claim the impeachment inquiry is rigged because the Democrats won’t allow them to question the whistleblower. They want uniformed Americans to believe the whistleblower is the villain in this story. It’s a red herring and an appeal to ignorance.

The whistleblower’s role is akin to a neighbor calling 911 after hearing gunshots. The police come to the scene and find a dead body. They conduct their investigation, examining the evidence and questioning witnesses, which leads them to the murderer. The murderer is apprehended, indicted, and goes to trial. Just imagine how absurd it would be if the primary focus of the trial for the defense was finding out who called 911. The neighbor simply reported something suspicious. This doesn’t change the fact that a person was murdered. It’s completely irrelevant how the police initially found out about the murder. If the neighbor wanted to remain anonymous and not testify in the trial, would that suddenly make all the other evidence inadmissible? No.

While the neighbor-calling-the-police analogy is extreme, the logic is no different than the whistleblower’s involvement in the Ukraine scandal. They became aware of wrongdoing and reported it to the appropriate party (i.e. the inspector general of national intelligence). This is why the police have anonymous tip lines and why institutions have whistleblower procedures and protections.

Trump and his defenders will continue to pound the table, hoping the noise will be loud enough to distract enough Americans away from the facts. They will talk about the nefarious “deep state” trying to undermine an innocent president. The real deep state, however, is made up of American civil servants who dedicate their lives to protect this country –even if it means protecting it from itself.