Congressman Adam Schiff insisted on Sunday that the January 6th Committee had “evidence” of former President Donald Trump’s involvement in an effort to over turn the results of the 2020 election, but refused to reveal it because he did not want to “get ahead of the hearing.”
Schiff joined anchor Dana Bash on CNN’s “State of the Union” to discuss the ongoing public committee hearings – and Bash pressed Schiff several times on his claims that Trump had been involved in what happened.
WATCH:
Rep. Adam Schiff tells Dana Bash that he "has evidence" of Trump's involvement on January 6th, but he can't reveal it because he doesn't "want to get ahead of the hearing." pic.twitter.com/mAcVL6LW5R
— Virginia Kruta (@VAKruta) June 19, 2022
“Your hearing will include evidence about Trump electors in battleground states who submitted fake Electoral College ballots, even though Trump lost these states we’re talking about,” Bash began. “We have already heard campaign officials, Trump campaign officials were involved in that. Do you have evidence that the former president himself was involved?”
“Yes. We’ll show evidence of the president’s involvement in this scheme,” Schiff replied. “We’ll also, again, show evidence about what his own lawyers came to think about this scheme. And we’ll show courageous state officials who stood up and said they wouldn’t go along with this plan to either call legislatures back into session or decertify the results for Joe Biden.”
Schiff went on to claim that the system had only “held” because state and local officials had “upheld their oath to the Constitution” and refused to go along with Trump.
“Just to be clear, you said you have evidence that the then president was involved in putting a fake slate of electors out there,” Bash pushed back. “Do you have evidence that he directed it?”
“You know, I don’t want to get ahead of our hearing,” Schiff replied. “We’ll show during a hearing what the president’s role was in trying to get states to name alternate slates of electors, how that scheme depended initially on hopes that the legislatures would reconvene and bless it and he pressed forward with it anyway.”
“Will we see he directed it?” Bash interrupted, repeating the question once Schiff finished his thought. “Will we see that he directed it?”
“I don’t want to get ahead of the role,” Schiff said again.
Schiff took the same position when he accused former President Trump of colluding with Russia in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election — often claiming that he had evidence of collusion but never revealing it publicly.