The ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee on Sunday claimed Republican Chairman Devin Nunes’ actions indicate he is trying to give Americans reason to believe the Obama administration spied on President Trump’s campaign by refocusing the investigation on an irrelevant issue.
“The White House seems to be doing everything it can to point in other directions and say ‘do not look here, there is nothing to see here,'” Rep. Adam Schiff told CNN’s “State of the Union” host Jake Tapper.
“It certainly is an attempt to distract and to hide the origin of the materials — to hide the White House hand,” Schiff added about the White House and Nunes’ focus on determining who unmasked former national security adviser Mike Flynn’s name.
The California lawmaker proposed that the effort is meant to point congressional committees investigating Russia’s interference in the U.S. election in other directions.
Schiff visited the White House late last week to review the documents only Nunes had read earlier in the week. Schiff said it was not enough for the intelligence to be shared with just the two of them and insisted the full committee should be able to review what he and Nunes have.
“But the most important thing people need to know about these documents is not classified and it’s a couple of things. First, the deputy assistant to the White House informed me when I went to see them that these are exactly the same materials that were shown to the chairman. Now, this is a very interesting point,” Schiff said. “How does the White House know that these are the same materials that were shown to the chairman if the White House wasn’t aware what the chairman was being shown?”
Schiff lambasted the Trump administration for producing these documents “during the ordinary course of business.”
“The question for the White House and Mr. Spicer is the ordinary course of whose business? Because if these were produced either for or by the White House, then why all of the subterfuge?” Schiff asked.
