Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the ranking member of the House Select Intelligence Committee, is eager to get to the bottom of President Trump’s claims that he was wiretapped by the Obama administration.
“The president has asked our committee to investigate this. And I would say, ‘Mr. President. We accept. We accept. We will investigate this.'”
The evening press conference from Schiff, came roughly two hours after his Republican committee counterpart, Devin Nunes, R-Calif., also took questions from the press about Russian involvement in the 2016 election. Nunes announced an open hearing will be held on March 20, which includes numerous invitees such as FBI Director James Comey, former director of national intelligence James Clapper and former acting Attorney General Sally Yates.
Schiff noted that Trump had drawn comparisons between his allegations of a wiretap against his campaign and the Watergate scandal, but added, “The alternative is a different kind of scandal, and that is a scandal of a sitting U.S. president alleging that his predecessor engaged in the most unscrupulous and unlawful conduct. That is also a scandal if those allegations prove to be false, and we should be able to determine in fairly short order whether this allegation is true of false.”
Schiff said he would ask Comey directly at the hearing on March 20 whether any kind of wiretap on the Trump campaign was authorized or executed, noting that Comey has already asked the Justice Department to refute the claims in Trump’s tweets according to reports.
While Schiff and Nunes have been at odds on numerous issues regarding the multiple angles and accusations of Russian involvement in U.S. politics, he tried to draw out points of agreement. He also wouldn’t identify any specific persons he thought should have been included but weren’t on the invitation list for the open hearings in two weeks.
In Nunes’ press conference earlier at the Capitol, he said he hadn’t seen any direct evidence of a wiretap directed at the Trump campaign, but also defended the president’s tweets.
Both Nunes and Schiff also appear to have some agreement on whether Congress should reexamine the necessity of FISA courts, which stands for Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and the wiretaps that they authorize.
Like Nunes, Schiff opened his press conference by extolling the virtues of making the first hearing open instead of closed. But his remarks took a more ominous tone later.
“Will we ultimately be successful?” Schiff asked. “I think another inflection point will come when we need to compel people to come to the committee, and whether we can get bipartisan agreement on that. That’s often where the rubber meets the road in an investigation.”
