“Eh, Eh, Ed, I’m not, uh, familiar with this notion that anyone’s been blocked from testifying...” said The Dear Leader.
Two options here:
1. He’s lying and the answer is meant to trivialize the situation.
2. He’s (gasp) telling the truth and either (A) his handlers have him isolated and have not told him or (B) he was told, but forgot - He DOES have a lot on his mind - Jason Collins and all that.
Always consider as well “parsing”, sophistry, and word games as well. Well, we did tell him that he would be subjecting himself to charges of Unauthorized Release of Classified Information, but we didn’t “block” him, that’s his choice. Or, no, he wasn’t “blocked”, we just didn’t have enough time alloted in the hearings to include him. Or, no, he hasn’t been “blocked”, it’s just that we’ve sent letters to everybody else telling them it’s ok to testify, we just haven’t sent one to him yet. Etc.
The follow up questions which is never asked is “Now that you know, who are you going to fire?”