President Trump drew attention to reports that House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff is blocking the release of witness interview transcripts from the panel’s investigation into Russian election interference.
He quote-tweeted on Monday evening a missive from Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, that said, “Why won’t Adam Schiff release declassified interviews from his Russian collusion witch hunt? Because he knows the President did nothing wrong.”
Trump added his own answer to Jordan’s question. “Because Shifty is a crooked politician!” he said.
Because Shifty is a crooked politician! https://t.co/bYkaJmy4Yj
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 28, 2020
Jordan’s tweet shared a post from the Wall Street Journal editorial board, which, like the Washington Examiner, had sources who said Schiff is refusing to make public 43 transcripts that have been declassified and is preventing the declassification of 10 others.
Among the witnesses interviewed were top Obama administration officials, as well as associates of the president.
“Mr. Schiff spent years shouting cover-up only to be exposed for making things up. Now that the evidence is ready for public release, he’s defying the unanimous vote of a bipartisan committee to make them public. What doesn’t Mr. Schiff want America to see?” the Wall Street Journal editorial board said.
“Adam Schiff is desperately trying to hide these transcripts (including mine) from the American people. Who do you think he’s trying to protect? Me or Susan Rice, Samantha Power, Sally Yates, and Andy McCabe?” Donald Trump Jr., who was one of the people interviewed, said earlier in the day.
Special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, which ran in tandem with congressional inquiries, did not establish any criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia, a point which critics of Schiff often raise when noting his insistence there was “collusion in plain sight.”
California Rep. Devin Nunes, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, told the Washington Examiner that Schiff should make the already declassified transcripts public immediately.
“HPSCI Democrats opposed every Republican document request and subpoena that helped to expose malfeasance in the FBI’s Russia collusion probe. And now, by refusing to publish the witness transcripts or the transcript of the committee’s briefing with former [Intelligence Community Inspector General] Michael Atkinson, the Democrats are blatantly continuing to hide documents that expose their own mistruths,” Nunes said. “There is no reason for keeping these documents secret except that they want to hide what’s in them.”
Schiff’s office did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s multiple requests for comment, but in the past accused the White House of “hijacking” the process. The California Democrat claimed the 10 transcripts that the intelligence community wanted the White House to be able to review, including two that the Washington Examiner learned contained no classified information, had been held “hostage.”
