The chair of the House Intelligence Committee has it in for Donald Trump, and he is not someone to mess with. Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA) has no intention of waiting for the special counsel’s investigation to conclude before going after the man currently sitting in the Oval Office. The Republicans assisted the president in a two-year wrecking ball of the American government. Now, Schiff is going to make up for lost time as he said on NBC’s ‘Meet The Press‘ Sunday.
Chairman Schiff appeared on the morning show and dove right into how this was going to go down. Host Chuck Todd asked what would happen if Special Counsel Robert Mueller asked the representative to “be patient” and wait for the report. Mueller has been investigating Russia’s attack on the 2016 presidential election and the Trump campaign conspiracy with Moscow.
Schiff replied that the Republicans did not do “a credible investigation of the Russia links:”‘
‘I mean, we’re doing our best to de-conflict with him. But up until now, that’s been a non-issue because in the minority in the last two years, the Republicans would not do any investigation, wouldn’t do a credible investigation of the Russia links, certainly wouldn’t look into the president’s finances. So there was nothing to de-conflict as long as they were in charge.’
The chairman was quite concerned, because when the special counsel’s team subpoenaed Deutsche Bank, Trump apparently wanted to fire Mueller. Schiff does not want Mueller fired, and the Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has repeatedly refused to protect the special counsel. Schiff said:
‘…the special counsel had subpoenaed Deutsche Bank, that the president moved to fire Mueller. And the way they talked him off the ledge was by promising that that reporting wasn’t true, that the special counsel hadn’t subpoenaed Deutsche Bank.’
The committee chair was also concerned that Mueller might be backing away from POTUS’ “red line” in front of Trump’s finances. That could miss exposing money laundering:
Well, if the special counsel hasn’t subpoenaed Deutsche Bank, he can’t be doing much of a money laundering investigation. So that’s what concerns me, that that red line has been enforced, whether by the deputy attorney general or by some other party at the Justice Department. But that leaves the country exposed. I find it, you know, just remarkable, Chuck, that the President of the United States as a candidate, as the presumptive nominee, could be pursuing business with the Kremlin and lying about it, and…’
Then, Todd noted that money laundering was perhaps a side-issue, so why not wait for Mueller to finish? Schiff said the country has already been waiting 18 months, and after all, the House has a “separate and independent and important responsibility:”
‘And that is to tell the country what happened. Mueller, ultimately, his job is to determine who broke the law and who should go to jail. But as we have seen from Bill Barr’s testimony, there is no commitment by this Justice Department under Whitaker and there’s no commitment apparently under Barr, should he be confirmed, to share that evidence with the Congress or the American people, so we need to find it ourselves.’
It would not be implausible for Trump to bury Mueller’s report, should Schiff be waiting on it before starting his hearings. Fortunately, the Democrats have decided to move on with their hearings and investigations into evidence of Trump’s ever increasing pile of alleged criminal activity.
The trail of Trump’s monstrous money schemes has appeared to contract and expand, much like a living breathing money machine. Schiff will follow the trail wherever it takes him.
Featured image is a screenshot via YouTube.
