House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) apparently coached former Donald Trump attorney Michael Cohen on what would be discussed at last week’s congressional hearing. This, along with a meeting between Schiff and Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson prior to Simpson’s testimony and a long list of examples of the congressman claiming to have evidence against President Donald Trump that never materializes, lead one to wonder why Schiff hasn’t been the subject of an ethics investigation.
American Greatness’ Julie Kelly has been reporting on Schiff and the myriad Democrat investigations into alleged collusion between Trump and Russia to steal the 2016 election, and asks the simple question in an article titled, “Where is House Ethics probe into Adam Schiff?”
During Cohen’s testimony last week, the former “fixer” for Trump said he had spoken to House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-MD) and also with Schiff’s “people.” When Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) asked what he spoke to Schiff’s team about, Cohen said he spoke to them “about topics that were going to be raised at the upcoming hearing,” and not just simply logistics.
Kelly also notes that days before Cohen’s testimony, Schiff said on ABC’s “This Week” that Cohen was going to testify that Trump engaged in money-laundering and obstruction of justice.
“It all amounted to the latest ethical misstep by the Democratic chairman of the House Intelligence Committee; unfortunately, none of Schiff’s bad behavior has caught the attention either of the media or congressional watchdogs,” Kelly wrote. “Unlike his predecessor, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), who was subjected to a fruitless, eight-month House Ethics Committee investigation in 2017, Schiff continues to escape scrutiny for lying to Congress, misleading the public about imaginary crimes related to Russian collusion, and now, witness-tampering.”
This wasn’t Schiff’s only questionable behavior. Two years ago he claimed to have “more than circumstantial evidence” proving collusion, yet no such evidence has surfaced. Now, Schiff is threatening to drag Special Counsel Robert Mueller before the House Intelligence Committee if he doesn’t release the full report from his investigation (one imagines he will only do this if the summary of the report finds no collusion).
Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) wrote in December 2017 that Republicans believe Schiff and/or members of his staff have released classified or unauthorized information to the media, a “serious violation of committee and House rules.” When Donald Trump, Jr. testified behind closed doors before the House Intelligence Committee in December 2017, Schiff reportedly left the meeting often, and within minutes, a “scoop” would appear on CNN relating to what was being said.
Donny Ferguson, who previously worked for former congressman Steve Stockman, said on Twitter that Schiff also did this during Benghazi hearings.
“During our closed-door Benghazi hearings Schiff would step out to ‘take a phone call’ and 30 minutes later what was just discussed would appear on CNN,” Ferguson said.
Along with this, Schiff also met with Fusion GPS founder Simpson in Aspen in July 2018, prior to Simpson’s testimony about alleged Russian collusion and the former FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has asked questions to Schiff that have so far gone unanswered relating to this meeting. Kelly goes a step further and suggests House Republicans should “push for an ethics probe.”
“Rep. Kenny Marchant (R-Texas), the ranking member of the House Ethics Committee, should urge the chairman of that committee immediately to investigate Schiff for witness-tampering, obstruction of justice, illegal leaks of nonpublic information and misleading Congress among other acts of malfeasance,” Kelly wrote. “As Schiff now promises to continue an unending stream of investigations into the president, it’s past time for him to be held accountable for his own misconduct instead.”