Good Thursday morning. I'm Anna Palmer and welcome to your Politico Playbook audio briefing, sponsored by Blue Cross Blue Shield Association.

And I'm Jake Sherman, Joseph McGuire, the acting DNI, who's denying a Washington Post story saying he threatened to quit, will testify in front of the House Intelligence Committee at 9 a.m. and 2154, Rayburn.

The title of the hearing, whistleblowerower Disclosure. Nearly the entire committee will

have read the whistleblower report by the hearing and will be well-versed in its contents.

We spoke with Democrats familiar with the game plan and here's the deal. This is not an impeachment

hearing, but rather an oversight of the intelligence community. Obviously, the material here is

highly relevant to impeachment. The Democrat's goal is to

understand what the White House of DOJ did to block Congress from getting the whistleblowers report.

Was there a cover-up? Who ordered what, when, why, and through what channels? The committee

will also be pushing for the DNI to make more information about the complaint public.

This is Noom, the advisors. Who has the leadership and committee's ear?

The Democratic leadership and committee staff are relying on significant outside counsel

as they try to keep the impeachment and oversight process on track.

Phil Schillero, who ran legislative affairs for President Barack Obama and was a top oversight

staffer for Representative Henry Waxman is informally advising

the Democratic leadership and key committees about the oversight process. He recently started

Co-equal, an organization dedicated to legislating. The organization has compiled Oversight

Committee precedent. So if someone says no staff member has ever been able to question a witness,

co-equal can tell you when it's happened.

Also advising the Democrats, Fred Wertheimer, and Lawrence Tribe.

About those counts, every news organization with a major Washington presence, including us,

has kept helpful counts of who's supporting impeachment.

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