House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff may have been a source for media reports last year that hyped intelligence about how the Russian government had offered bounties to Afghan militants to kill U.S. troops, according to a Republican lawmaker.
Sen. Tom Cotton told Lisa Boothe on her podcast, The Truth with Lisa Boothe, that the leaks were “probably as likely” to have come from Democrats in Congress as the U.S. intelligence community and specifically name-dropped Schiff, a California Democrat.
The Arkansas Republican was reacting to the White House saying last week the U.S. intelligence community had only “low to moderate confidence” in intelligence that was used by former President Donald Trump’s critics to say he was ignoring information out of deference to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Just last week, the Biden administration presumably authorized that information to be released from the intelligence community. They had low — only low to moderate confidence. That’s pretty low, I got to tell you, just from a tradecraft perspective,” said Cotton, an Army veteran.
“I can’t say that those leaks last summer came from the intelligence community itself, but I think it’s probably as likely that they came from Democrats in Congress who had seen those documents and misrepresented them through the media,” he added. “Adam Schiff, I’m looking right at you right now as a potential source for that.”
INSIDE THE CIA AND NSA DISAGREEMENT OVER RUSSIAN BOUNTIES STORY
Schiff was one of the Democrats last summer who talked up the media reports on alleged Russian bounties.
“Americans are outraged by reports that Russia offered bounties on U.S. troops,” he said in a July tweet. “The only American who isn’t? Donald Trump. Trump is again taking the Kremlin’s side and calling it a hoax. This is no hoax, Mr. President. But it is time you put our troops first, instead of Putin.”
Schiff’s office shot back at Cotton over the suggestion that the congressman could be behind the leaks.
“Yet another false and baseless claim by Tom Cotton — you would think he would know better by now,” Schiff spokesman Patrick Boland told the Washington Examiner.
The California Democrat and his team have been accused of leaking intelligence in the past, including by former acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell.
Schiff denied leaking classified intelligence last year when Trump suggested he made disclosures for political gain after the Office of the Director of National Intelligence informed Congress that the intelligence community would not give in-person election security briefings to lawmakers.
“I haven’t. My staff hasn’t. I can’t speak for what all the members of the committee have done or not done, including a lot of the Republican members,” Schiff told CNN’s Dana Bash after she asked if he or other Democrats on the panel have leaked classified information. Schiff also said such leaks are “always improper” and that “sometimes, they’re illegal.”
Numerous national security and intelligence officials said last year that the Russia intelligence was not fully corroborated, and the Trump administration said in the summer that it was investigating further while also opening a leak investigation. The United States believes Russia supplied weapons to the Taliban for years, but bounties would be a significant escalation.
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President Joe Biden himself used the reports on the alleged Russian bounties to criticize Trump on the campaign trail last year. He said during a virtual town hall that if the reporting was true, “not only has he failed to sanction or impose any kind of consequences on Russia for this egregious violation of international law, Donald Trump has continued his embarrassing campaign of deference and debasing himself before Vladimir Putin.”
Cotton said there was a “disconcerting pattern of leaked intelligence” during the Trump and Biden administrations, alluding to other issues such as Iran’s nuclear program.
