Schiff abused people’s belief that because of his position on the intelligence committee, he knew secrets that were about to be revealed.
Yesterday, the Republican majority House of Representatives voted to censure and condemn Democratic representative Adam Schiff.
Whether or not Schiff deserves a formal censure by the House, the California congressman and aspiring senator deserves a reputation as a spectacularly unreliable source, a man prone to describing what he wants to see instead of what is actually there.
Because Schiff served on the House intelligence committee and enjoyed access to a great deal of classified information, a lot of people believe, or believed, he knew things the rest of us didn’t. (Keep in mind, members of the intelligence panel can see sensitive information that other members of the House cannot.) Schiff knew darn well that people believed this, and abused people’s faith that he knew things that the general public would eventually learn.
House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff said Sunday that there is ample evidence Donald Trump’s presidential campaign colluded with Russia. . . .
“You can see evidence in plain sight on the issue of collusion, pretty compelling evidence,” Schiff said, adding, “There is a difference between seeing evidence of collusion and being able to prove a criminal conspiracy beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Schiff said special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on potential Russian government meddling in the 2016 election might not be the final word on the matter.
Although the investigation established that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome, and that the campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts, the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.
Nor can Schiff plausibly argue that the evidence of collusion exists, but that for some reason, former FBI director Robert Mueller didn’t find it after 22 months, with 19 lawyers, 40 FBI agents, intelligence analysts, forensic accountants, and other professional staff at his disposal, after interviewing 500 witnesses, issuing 2,800 subpoenas, 230 orders for communication records, 13 requests to foreign governments, and nearly 500 search warrants.
Nor can Schiff plausibly argue that Mueller was barred, hindered, or stopped from finding that evidence. On July 24, 2019, Mueller testified before Congress, and Representative Doug Collins of Georgia asked him, “At any time in the investigation, was your investigation curtailed or stopped or hindered?” Mueller answered, “No.” Recall that Mueller was under oath at that moment.
As I wrote back then, “whatever Mueller concluded, there were no do-overs, take-backs, or second bites of the apple. . . . No one can argue that the investigation was rushed, undermanned, under-funded, restricted, or somehow unfairly limited.”
What’s more, Schiff seemed almost gleefully irresponsible with his position, reading aloud a “parody” version of Trump’s July 2019 phone call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky during an official House Intelligence Committee hearing. He said he had no regrets about hyping the discredited Steele dossier, and couldn’t have known that sources cited in that document were lying. Schiff lied about contact with a whistleblower.
Lots of congressmen (and presidents) lie, alas. But those lies are more damaging when they overtly cite or imply they are based on intelligence information that the rest of us can’t see; verifying those claims is nearly impossible.
When you have access to classified information, clarity in communications matters. There is no good committee for the House to assign its most notorious liars, but the intelligence panel is a particularly bad one to have an incorrigible fabulist, offering his more dramatic and fanciful version of events and promoting his preferred narratives.
California Democrats may well reward Schiff’s misbehavior with a Senate seat. And in heavily Democratic California, Schiff will wear yesterday’s censure by House Republicans as a badge of honor.