House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Ranking Member Devin Nunes (R-CA) sent a joint request to the Department of Justice requesting that special counsel Robert Mueller brief their committee and provide “all materials, regardless of form and classification, obtained or produced” during his 2-year investigation, the Daily Beast reports.
Schiff Won’t Help Cohen Delay Prison Sentence
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) signaled that he won’t help Michael Cohen delay the start of his three-year prison sentence, even after the president’s former lawyer claimed he discovered troves of new records that could be useful to investigators, CNN reports.
Said Schiff: “I don’t get involved in sentencing matters as a practice. I never have in Congress and that’s been my policy.”
Mueller Testimony Before Congress Is ‘Inevitable’
“House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) said he sees it as a foregone conclusion that Special Counsel Robert Mueller will face questioning by Congress following the release of his report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election,” Bloomberg reports.
Said Schiff: “I think it’s inevitable that Bob Mueller is going to have to testify before Congress.”
He added that his committee has “a statutory requirement that the Intelligence Community, FBI, brief us on any significant counterintelligence or intelligence activity. And it’s hard to imagine something that rises more to that level than this investigation.”
GOP Ramps Up Calls for Schiff to Resign
“The House Intelligence Committee devolved into bitter infighting Thursday at a public hearing after all nine Republicans on the panel called on Chairman Adam Schiff to resign from his post, while the California Democrat responded with a blistering account of what he termed ‘evidence of collusion’ between President Donald Trump’s campaign and Russian interests,” Politico reports.
Schiff Writes Open Letter to GOP Lawmakers
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA): “To my Republican colleagues: When the president attacked the independence of the Justice Department by intervening in a case in which he is implicated, you did not speak out. When he attacked the press as the enemy of the people, you again were silent. When he targeted the judiciary, labeling judges and decisions he didn’t like as illegitimate, we heard not a word. And now he comes for Congress, the first branch of government, seeking to strip it of its greatest power, that of the purse.”
“Many of you have acknowledged your deep misgivings about the president in quiet conversations over the past two years. You have bemoaned his lack of decency, character and integrity. You have deplored his fundamental inability to tell the truth. But for reasons that are all too easy to comprehend, you have chosen to keep your misgivings and your rising alarm private.”
“That must end. The time for silent disagreement is over. You must speak out.”
Schiff Says Democrats Could Subpoena Mueller
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the incoming chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, told NBC News that Democrats will subpoena special counsel Robert Mueller’s report if President Trump tries to invoke executive privilege to keep it secret.
Said Schiff: “I’m prepared to make sure we do everything possible so that the public has the advantage of as much of the information as it can.”
Schiff Intends to Obliterate Trump’s ‘Red Line’
Jeffrey Toobin: “President Trump said some time ago that he believes his personal finances should be off limits to investigators. In an interview with the Times in July, 2017, he asserted that if Robert Mueller, the special counsel, sought to investigate the Trump family’s business dealings he would be crossing a ‘red line.’ When, later that year, several news reports suggested that Mueller had subpoenaed Deutsche Bank for records relating to Trump’s businesses, the President reportedly told members of his staff that he wanted to fire Mueller in response.”
“It was never confirmed whether Mueller had actually subpoenaed Deutsche Bank, but the President’s aversion to the scrutiny of his business interests caught the attention of Representative Adam Schiff, who will become the chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence next year. On a recent weekend, at a busy restaurant in downtown Burbank, in the heart of his congressional district, Schiff talked about his plans for conducting an investigation that will be parallel to Mueller’s, probing Trump’s connections to Russia, Saudi Arabia, and other places around the world.”
“As Schiff described his approach, it became clear that he wasn’t just planning to cross Trump’s red line—he intended to obliterate it.”
Quote of the Day
“We believe other witnesses were untruthful before our committee. We want to share those transcripts with Mr. Mueller.”
— Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), quoted by ABC News, calling for the release of transcripts of sworn testimony before the House Intelligence Committee in their investigation of Trump campaign collusion with Russia.
Democrats Will Investigate Trump’s Ties to Saudi Arabia
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) told the Washington Post that Democrats will investigate President Trump’s financial ties to Saudi Arabia as part of a “deep dive” on the kingdom when majority control of the House changes hands in January.
Said Schiff: “There are a whole set of potential financial conflicts of interest and emoluments problems that Congress will need to get to the bottom of. Certainly if foreign investment in the Trump businesses is guiding U.S. policy in a way that’s antithetical to the country’s interests, we need to find out about it.”
Schiff Sees Evidence of Collusion ‘In Plain Sight’
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) told CBS News that he believes there’s clear evidence that President Trump colluded with the Russians to win the 2016 presidential campaign.
Said Schiff: “I think there’s plenty of evidence of collusion or conspiracy in plain sight.”
Trump Secretly Admires Adam Schiff
Jonathan Swan: “Trump would never admit this publicly, but he told people afterwards that he was impressed by the performance of his Democratic nemesis Adam Schiff. Trump hates Schiff and calls him a horrible liar. But he marveled at Schiff’s tough and surgical opening statement that day.”
“More than six months after the hearing, Trump told an aide how impressive he considered Schiff’s performance to be.”
Bonus Quote of the Day
“Many of us could see that Donald Trump was going to be a very poor president. What we couldn’t see is many people would be complicit in that.”
— Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), in an interview with the Rachel Maddow Show.
Wikileaks May Be the Smoking Gun
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Trump Rips Adam Schiff for Leaking
President Trump blasted Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) in a tweet, calling him “one of the biggest liars” in Washington:
Little Adam Schiff, who is desperate to run for higher office, is one of the biggest liars and leakers in Washington, right up there with Comey, Warner, Brennan and Clapper! Adam leaves closed committee hearings to illegally leak confidential information. Must be stopped!
Schiff Says Evidence of Collusion is ‘Pretty Damning’
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told CNN that there is considerable evidence the Trump campaign colluded with Russia.
Said Schiff: “We have all of these facts in chronology, you’d have to believe that these were all isolated incidents, not connected to each other — just doesn’t make rational sense… We do know this: the Russians offered help, the campaign accepted help, the Russians gave help and the president made full use of that help. That is pretty damning, whether it is proof beyond a reasonable doubt of conspiracy or not.”
Extra Bonus Quote of the Day
“My expectation would be that this would be the last straw for Republicans — that they would finally have to stand up to the president. Of course, that expectation has proved illusory in the past. So there’s no guarantee.”
— Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), quoted by the Washington Post, on speculation that President Trump might fire special counsel Robert Mueller.
