Adam Schiff’s 2020 challenger filed an ethics complaint against the California congressman for his willingness to accept dirt on President Trump in an international prank call.
Schiff’s Republican challenger, Jon Hollis, filed the complaint with the Office of Congressional Ethics, citing his competitor’s willingness to accept “compromising material” against the president from international agents as the basis of the complaint.
At the time, Schiff believed he was speaking to a Ukrainian politician, but the call ended up being a bogus prank, which was recorded and posted online. In the call, Schiff discussed obtaining nude photographs of Trump from the foreign agents.
Hollis, who has run several unsuccessful races against Schiff since 2001, wrote the OCE claiming that this attempt to get illicit photographs of Trump from the pranksters is “illegal collusion with foreign entities.”
“This letter serves as an official complaint to the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) regarding Rep. Adam Schiff’s illegal collusion with foreign entities and misuse of taxpayer resources for opposition research on political enemies,” Hollis wrote in the complaint. “The evidence supporting Adam Schiff’s violations of the law is compelling and irrefutable.”
Schiff has denied that he did anything wrong in the prank call because he intended to loop the FBI into the investigation. Hollis, however, claimed in the complaint that Schiff was in the wrong for his attempt to include the FBI in his political endeavors against the president.
“It is clear from the recorded phone call that Rep. Schiff knows he should not be trying to obtain opposition research on a political opponent from foreign nationals. He attempts to mask his wrongdoing by, on numerous occasions, mentioning that he will work with the FBI. In so doing, Rep. Schiff is attempting to involve the FBI in his corrupt attempt to obtain dirt on President Trump,” Hollis wrote. “The FBI should not be in the business of teaming up with politicians to use the power of government to dig up dirt on political opponents.”
Schiff has been a leading Democrat in the impeachment inquiry against Trump on the basis that the president tried to pressure Ukrainian leaders to give dirt on his potential 2020 general election competitor, former Vice President Joe Biden.
