I think the request should come from you, and you can ask for it to come directly to you. At some point it needs to come to the clerk because everybody needs to see it.
If you want to send it, and send a copy to the clerk, and ask that the response be forwarded to the clerk, that would close all the circles. The important thing is that whatever any member receives from our witnesses, it's shared with everyone. That would be the key thing.
Some circumstances would have me saying differently, but I think in this case the fair thing is for you to initiate a detailed question, providing the background material and asking for answers to be forwarded to the clerk.