Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said he believes the documents revealed earlier in the week by Chairman Devin Nunes are more than likely collected from “incidental” surveillance, and therefore, the president’s claims of being “wiretapped” are 100 percent wrong.
“So, I assume without knowing any better, that what the chairman is talking about is he’s looked at communications that were incidentally collected, that is not targeted at the president,” Schiff told reporters. “So, no defense for the president, not a full validation or vindication of the president, not a partial validation of the president, a zero validation of the president, even if you accept what the chairman has said.”
At issue are the intelligence documents that Nunes briefed the press and White House about earlier this week, which Nunes claims may have been legally collected during foreign surveillance, but also has the revealed names of some members of the Trump transition. Thus far, Nunes is the only member of the intelligence committee known to have seen the documents.
Schiff was holding his own press conference about an hour after Nunes had delivered updates about the ongoing investigation, and announced that one-time Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort has volunteered to testify before the intelligence committee.
The committee is asking FBI Director James Comey and NSA Director Admiral Mike Rogers to come back and testify behind closed doors this Tuesday. By making that request, the Republican majority has canceled the open hearing that was already scheduled for that time that would have included testimony from the likes of the former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and former acting Attorney General Sally Yates.
Schiff blasted that decision to cancel the open hearing, saying the move was “at most a dodge.”
“I think that there must have been a very strong push back from the White House about the nature of Monday’s hearing. It’s hard for me to come to any other conclusion about why an agreed-upon hearing was suddenly canceled,” Schiff said.
