House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said the United States is in “jeopardy” the longer Congress has to wait to see President Trump’s financial records.
The California Democrat reacted to the two Supreme Court decisions regarding Trump’s financial records on Thursday during an interview with MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell. The high court sent Congress’s case seeking access to the documents back to lower courts, a setback for congressional investigators hoping to see the financial records before the 2020 election.
“We will go back to the district court,” Schiff said. “We are very confident we can meet these new tests that the Supreme Court enumerated, this four-part test. And, so, we will prevail, but again if we get the records and they show, in fact, that the president is beholden, does have financial entanglements that might explain, you know, for example, this bizarre affinity for Vladimir Putin and Russia or his interest in Turkey’s Erdogan or Saudi Arabia or other financial interests that are guiding and warping U.S. policy, if we don’t get that for months until — you know, from months from now, it means the country continues to be in jeopardy during that delay.”
In both cases, the Supreme Court denied the Trump administration’s claims of immunity from subpoenas by state and congressional subpoenas. In the other ruling, the high court paved the way for New York prosecutors to seek Trump’s financial information.
Schiff also criticized Attorney General William Barr, claiming that he “finds it a bitter pill to swallow that the president is not above the law.”
“He takes the legal view that essentially the president can’t violate the law because he is the law, and Bill Barr is essentially the hand of the president to implement his will. It’s why the Justice Department under Barr doesn’t represent justice. It doesn’t represent the public interest. It is essentially like a second defense attorney and defense counsel for the president,” Schiff said.
“But, you know, thankfully, you know, as I mentioned, we have a, once again, an affirmation even by justices that Donald Trump appointed that, no, as 200 years of jurisprudence demonstrate, this president is not above the law,” Schiff said. “He must comply with the legal process.”
He added: “You know, the difficulty is that Bill Barr and Donald Trump will do everything they can to delay.”
