Tag: Rep. Schiff

GOP Whip Scalise Refuses To Disown Death Threats Against Schiff

Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA), the House minority whip, refuses to condemn violent attacks against House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff, despite a previous pledge to do so.

Schiff (D-CA) has been on the receiving end of politically motivated death threats, spurred on by comments made by Donald Trump and Scalise, the Washington Post reported Monday.

Trump attacked Schiff, who is a leading voice in the House impeachment inquiry, but saying Schiff committed “treason,” leading many on social media to call for Schiff to be executed. Scalise called Schiff a “proven liar” who needs to be “held accountable,” resulting in many on the right calling for Schiff to be thrown in prison or be executed.

View the complete October 14 article by Dan Desai Martin on the National Memo website here.

Schiff Says Blocked Testimony Is ‘Evidence Of Obstruction’

House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff blasted the Trump administration on Tuesday for their last-minute decision to hold up congressional testimony by Gordan Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union.

Just before he was scheduled to testify about efforts by Trump to get Ukraine to dig up political dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden, the State Department announced that Sondland would be blocked from appearing.

“The failure to produce this witness, the failure to produce these documents, we consider yet additional strong evidence of obstruction of the constitutional functions of Congress, a coequal branch of government,” Schiff explained.

View the complete October 9 article by Oliver Willis on the National Memo website here.

Schiff: Trump requests to China, Ukraine are ‘fundamental breach’ of office

The Hill logoHouse Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) on Thursday blasted President Trump for asking China and Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, calling it a “fundamental breach” of presidential decorum and a threat to national security.

Emerging from a closed-door meeting in the Capitol basement, where lawmakers from three committees are interviewing a key witness as part of the Democrats’ impeachment inquiry, Schiff said the comments are evidence that Trump has ignored the lessons from former special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference — and Mueller’s warnings of ongoing foreign influence over critical domestic affairs.

“To have the president of the United States suggesting — urging — a foreign country to interfere in our presidential elections is an illustration that this president, if he learned anything from the two years of the Mueller investigation, it’s that he feels he can do anything with impunity,” Schiff told a crowd of reporters staking out the meeting.

View the complete October 3 article by Mike Lillis on The Hill website here.

Trump suggests Schiff be arrested for treason for exaggerating call with Ukraine

The Hill logoPresident Trump on Monday suggested House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) be arrested for treason, a crime punishable by death or prison time, for exaggerating parts of the president’s call with Ukraine’s leader.

In a series of morning tweets, Trump ripped Schiff and the anonymous whistleblower who raised concerns about Trump’s conduct on the call with the president of Ukraine, the latter of which has accelerated a Democratic impeachment inquiry into Trump.

“Rep. Adam Schiff illegally made up a FAKE & terrible statement, pretended it to be mine as the most important part of my call to the Ukrainian President, and read it aloud to Congress and the American people,” Trump tweeted. “It bore NO relationship to what I said on the call. Arrest for Treason?”

View the complete September 30 article by Brett Samuels on The Hill website here.

Rep. Schiff says he’s ‘flattered’ by Trump’s attacks over Ukraine inquiry

President Trump and Rep. Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and one of the Democrats’ point people on impeachment, got into a war of words Thursday.

Moments after acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire testified about his handling of a whistleblower complaint against Trump, Schiff told reporters on Capitol Hill that it was “hard to imagine a more serious set of allegations than those contained in the complaint,” which deals with the president’s attempts to enlist the government of Ukraine in gathering damaging information about Joe Biden, his potential political rival.

Schiff said his committee would continue to investigate the president through a 14-day recess scheduled to begin on Friday.

View the complete September 26 article by David Knowles on the Yahoo News website here.

Trump demands Schiff resign over account of Ukraine call

The Hill logoPresident Trump on Friday demanded House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) “immediately” resign from Congress for reading what the congressman described as a parody of the president’s phone call with Ukraine’s leader that is at the center of a whistleblower complaint.

In a series of tweets early Friday, Trump accused Schiff of lying to Congress and “fraudulently” reciting a version of the call that made it “sound horrible” and made the president appear “guilty.”

He was supposedly reading the exact transcribed version of the call, but he completely changed the words to make it sound horrible, and me sound guilty,” Trump tweeted.

View the complete September 27 article by Morgan Chalfant on The Hill website here.

Schiff recites long list of Trump’s Russia contacts after Republicans call for his resignation

“I think it’s immoral, I think it’s unethical, I think it’s unpatriotic, and yes, I think it’s corrupt and evidence of collusion.”

A group of House Republicans on Thursday called on House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) to resign from his post because he has repeatedly expressed concerns that President Donald Trump may have colluded with America’s political adversaries. In response, Schiff shot back with a detailed list of all of the times that Trump associates have had contact with Russians, admonishing his colleagues for normalizing that conduct, even if it stops short of a criminal conspiracy.

“I have always said that the question of whether this amounts to conspiracy is another matter,” Schiff said during the heated exchange. “But I do not think that conduct, criminal or not, is okay — and the day we do think that’s okay is the day we will look back and say, ‘that is the day America lost its way.’”

Reading a letter signed by nine Republican committee members calling for Schiff to step down as chairman, Rep. Mike Conaway (R-TX) had claimed moments prior that Schiff’s “willingness to promote a demonstrably false narrative is alarming.”

View the complete March 28 article by Danielle McLean on the ThinkProgress website here.

Schiff angrily pushes back against GOP calls for him to step down

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) aggressively pushed back at calls for him to step down from President Trump and other Republicans, defending his past comments by lighting into the president and his family and campaign over its contacts with Russia.

Schiff at the opening of an Intelligence Committee hearing on Russia listed contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia that he described as being “not OK,” signaling he’ll fiercely defend himself from the calls to end his chairmanship.

“My colleagues may think it is OK the president’s son was offered dirt as part of an effort to help Trump,” Schiff said in his statement, pausing at times for dramatic effect.

View the complete March 28 article by Olivia beavers and Morgan Chalfant on The Hill website here.

Schiff says it’s a ‘mistake’ for Mueller not to interview Trump

The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee said Sunday that special counsel Robert S. Mueller III was making a “mistake” by not demanding that President Trump testify as part of his investigation, which by many accounts may soon be nearing its end.

Speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) acknowledged that it might be expedient for Mueller to avoid subpoenaing Trump’s testimony because the president could fight it and Mueller’s new boss, Attorney General William P. Barr, might oppose such a move.

“But I do think ultimately it’s a mistake because probably the best way to get the truth would be to put the president under oath,” Schiff said. “As he’s made plain in the past, he feels it’s perfectly fine to lie to the public. After all, he has said, ‘It’s not like I’m talking before a magistrate.’ Well, maybe he should talk before a magistrate.”

View the complete March 10 article by Karoun Demirjian on The Washington Post website here.

Rep. Schiff warns of subpoenas, lawsuit over Mueller report

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) Credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images

WASHINGTON — A top House Democrat threatened on Sunday to call special counsel Robert Mueller to Capitol Hill, subpoena documents and sue the Trump administration if the full report on Mueller’s Russia investigation is not made public.

Rep. Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said his committee will keep close watch on new Attorney General William Barr to see if he were “to try to bury any part of this report.” Schiff, D-Calif., also pledged to “take it to court if necessary.”

He said anything less than complete disclosure would leave Barr, who now oversees the investigation, with “a tarnished legacy.”

View the complete February 24 article by Mary Clare Jalonick and Hope Yen of the Associated Press on The Washington Post website here.