President Trump said House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff should be investigated for his handling of the House probe into the president’s relations with Ukraine.
Trump discussed his problems with Schiff in a press conference on Monday. The president slammed Schiff again for reading a parody of Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and Trump criticized Schiff’s handling of a CIA whistleblower complaint that sparked a House impeachment inquiry against the president.
“I think Adam Schiff should be investigated for what he did. He took to the great chamber, Congress, and he made a speech, and his speech was a fraud,” Trump said, referring to Schiff’s opening comments in a Sept. 26 house hearing for acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire.
“Everything he said was a fraud. He went out as though I wrote it. He defrauded the American people. He defrauded Congress. He defrauded himself and his family,” Trump continued. “He got up and made a speech that bore no relationship to what the conversation was. I’ll tell you a lot of people heard that speech and a lot of people thought that’s what I said because they heard his speech.”
Schiff had claimed that he or his staff had not met with the whistleblower and had not heard of the complaint before it was filed to the intelligence community inspector general. Later news reports proved Schiff’s statements false, showing that Schiff’s staff on the Intelligence Committee had communicated with the whistleblower and advised the anonymous CIA agent on how to file a whistleblower complaint.
“Through the committee, through himself, [Schiff] met with the whistleblower. They never said that. They never talked about it,” Trump said. “And [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi knew all of this stuff. She’s just as guilty as he is.”
