House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) is reportedly “in panic mode” over transcripts that have been cleared to be released from his committee’s Russia investigation, which reportedly show that they had no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials.
Fox News reported that Acting Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Richard Grenell had informed Schiff that transcripts were cleared for public release.
A senior Trump administration official told Fox News that “Schiff is in panic mode” because the transcripts that are about to come out allegedly do not back up what he was telling the public.
Earlier this week, House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jim Jordan (R-OH) and other leading Republicans sent a letter to Schiff requesting the transcripts.
The letter stated:
In January 2017, HPSCI began an investigation into Russian active measures to influence the 2016 Presidential election, including whether individuals associated with the presidential campaigns worked with Russia. In March 2018, after interviewing 73 individuals and reviewing over 300,000 documents, HPSCI issued a report finding that the Trump campaign did not collude with Russia. According to public reports, HPSCI voted in September 2018 to release 53 transcripts.
We understand now that Chairman Schiff is blocking the release of these transcripts. This news, if accurate, is disturbing—especially in light of Chairman Schiff’s cries in 2019 for transparency regarding allegations that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia. For almost four years, prominent Democrat politicians and commentators alleged that President Trump colluded with Russia, with Chairman Schiff going so far as to say that he had “direct evidence” of collusion. Now that these allegations have been disproven by several investigations, the American people deserve to have transparency about why public figures such as Chairman Schiff continued to promote such wild accusations.
Fox News reported that intelligence officials said that Schiff has had his staff contacting top officials in different intelligence agencies trying to figure out how involved Grenell was in getting the transcripts declassified.
“The declassification process was completed before Grenell took the helm as acting director this past February,” Fox News reported. “The process, according to an intelligence community official, took place under both former directors Dan Coates and Joseph Maguire, and was conducted by career intelligence officials. The official also told Fox News that the relevant heads of appropriate agencies were consulted on the declassifications and redactions of all 53 transcripts.”
A source close to the White House told The Daily Wire, “Schiff really is panicking In a state of panic, Schiff has been making sloppy mistakes. It was a colossally stupid mistake on his part to send his staff out to find out what role Grenell had in the process, it gave Grenell’s allies in the Intelligence Community the perfect opportunity to disclose that the redactions took place before Grenell got there. Some of Schiff’s other mistakes will play out over the next couple of days.”
This is a developing news story, refresh the page for updates.
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