Top committee staff for Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, were briefed in February on intelligence about Russia offering the Taliban bounties in Afghanistan, but he took no action in response to the briefing, multiple intelligence sources familiar with the briefing told The Federalist. The intelligence was briefed to Schiff’s staff during a congressional delegation, or CODEL, trip to Afghanistan in February.
Schiff, who has acknowledged President Donald Trump was never briefed on the so-called intelligence, has thus far refused to disclose that his staff was personally briefed. The revelation raises serious questions that Schiff is once again politicizing, and perhaps even deliberately misrepresenting, key data for partisan gain.
Asked by a reporter Tuesday if he had any knowledge of the Russia story prior to the New York Times report, Schiff said “I can’t comment on specifics.”
Schiff’s recent complaints that Trump took no action against Russia in response to rumors of Russian bounties are curious given that Schiff himself took no action after his top staff were briefed by intelligence officials. As chairman of the intelligence committee, Schiff had the authority to immediately brief the full committee and convene hearings on the matter. Schiff, however, did nothing. He did not brief his committee on the matter, nor did he brief the gang of 8, which consists of top congressional leadership in both chambers.
Schiff is demanding that the Trump administration brief all of Congress about the unverified allegations, yet he himself did not ask for a briefing of the Intelligence Committee following the February briefing of his own staff.
Patrick Boland, a spokesman for Schiff on the intelligence committee, did not respond to a request for comment on Schiff’s inaction and declined to say why Schiff withheld the information from Congress for months. Boland also did not explain why travel records regarding the Congressional staff delegation trip to Afghanistan had not yet been disclosed in the Congressional Record as required by law.
Schiff, who was the key driver behind failed Democrat attempts to impeach and remove President Donald Trump from office earlier this year about the president’s interactions with foreign leaders, also lied about his staff’s interaction with the so-called whistleblower, identified by Real Clear Investigations as Eric Ciaramella, prior to the so-called whistleblower filing his complaint against Trump.
The California Democrat was also a main proponent of the Russia collusion hoax, falsely stating for years that he held “ample evidence of collusion” between President Trump and Russia. A lengthy investigation of the theory by Special Counsel Robert Mueller ostensibly set up to find that evidence was unable to find any evidence of any collusion between any American and Russia.
Just as Schiff falsely claimed that he and his staff had no interaction with the anti-Trump leaker behind the impeachment push and falsely claimed he was privy to secret evidence of collusion with Russia, Schiff attacked Trump for not taking action in response to the Russian bounty rumors while refusing to disclose that his own office was briefed in February and did nothing in response.
