House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff faced a grilling on his subpoena demanding President Trump’s acting spy chief deliver to him a whistleblower’s complaint.
CNN’s Anderson Cooper repeatedly asked the California Democrat if he knew the substance of what this individual has alleged in an interview Monday night.
“We don’t know precisely what it has to say,” Schiff admitted, but he emphasized how the intelligence community inspector general found the complaint credible “probably because he was able to corroborate at least some portion of it.”
Schiff also acknowledged he does not know the identity of the whistleblower and declined to get into “particulars” regarding any legal representation that might have reached out to the committee.
Much remains a mystery surrounding Schiff’s sudden announcement of a subpoena sent to acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire late on Friday. Schiff said he issued the subpoena after Maguire, who is only one month on the job as acting director, rejected his document request citing “confidentially and potentially privileged communications by persons outside the Intelligence Community.”
With so few details out about the complaint, some have been wary about the gravity of the situation.
In an appearance Monday on MSNBC, NBC News correspondent Carol Lee said she spoke to a former senior intelligence official, described as “no fan of this administration,” who urged caution because so much is unknown about the complaint. “It could wind up not being something,” she said, adding that, “Adam Schiff is pretty far out there” in stressing the urgency of this complaint.
In interviews discussing his subpoena, Schiff has alluded to the possibility of a high-level cover-up that could go all the way to Trump. He told CBS News on Sunday that this “involved a higher authority, someone above the DNI.”
A letter to Maguire, accompanying the subpoena, said the House Intelligence Committee will require him to testify in an open hearing on Thursday if he does not comply by Tuesday.
An Office of the Director of National Intelligence spokesperson said in a statement, “We are currently reviewing the request and will respond appropriately. The ODNI and Acting ODNI Maguire are committed to fully complying with the law and upholding whistleblower protections and have done so here.”
Schiff insisted to Cooper that Maguire and his team have yet to cooperate because they have no provided the requested materials to his committee.
Schiff also said he had a phone call with Maguire that he described as “not very encouraging.”
“I asked the director, ‘Does this involve something that our committee is investigating?’ And initially, the answer was, ‘No.’ And then his legal counsel had to correct him and say, ‘Actually, we can’t say that.'”
According to Schiff, this provided a “strong implication” that the whistleblower’s complaint was relevant to one of his committee’s investigations.
