In a shady operation, the former chair of the House Intelligence committee Representative Devin Nunes (R-CA) worked hand-in-glove with Donald Trump. After the Democrats took the House in the midterm elections, the committee’s new chair Adam Schiff (D-CA) has taken the president’s secret Republican-supported world and shaken it up like a snow globe. This is what is coming next.
Schiff appeared on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos and explained what the Intelligence committee’s first acts will be when Trump’s former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, comes before it in the coming week. Cohen will be going to jail in two months for crimes he committed at Trump’s behest.
The California representative noted that the GOP-led House established a new precedent. Thousands and thousands of data related to Hillary Clinton and also her emails had been turned over in the last Congress, so the Department of Justice (DOJ) under Barr must abide by it now:
‘(Trump’s) Department has violated that policy repeatedly… and to a great extent over the last two years. I’ve had this conversation with (Deputy Attorney General) Rod Rosenstein and others on down at the Justice Department as they turned over thousands and thousands of pages of discovery in the Clinton email investigation — and there was no indictment in that investigation — that this was a new precedent that they were setting, and they were going to have to live by this precedent whether it was a Congress controlled by the Democrats or the Republicans.’
Mueller may or may not try to indict Trump in the Russia investigation. However, he has has indicted or obtained guilty pleas from dozens of people already. These include a number of Trump’s campaign advisers, and Schiff said:
‘We will obviously subpoena the report, will bring Bob Mueller in to testify before Congress. We will take it to court if necessary. And in the end, I think the Department understands they are going to have to make this public.’
The chair said that he wanted to know why Cohen lied. Then, Schiff said he wanted to know about Trump’s clandestine deal with Putin to build a Moscow Trump tower. It would have been the “most lucrative deal of his life” the representative said.
After that, Schiff answered Stephanopoulos, saying that he also wanted to know who knew that Cohen lied to the committee. What happened in the Trump tower meeting among Donald Trump, Jr. and a group of Russians? What about sanctions on Russia? After all, a Russian mob was actually operating out of the Trump Tower in Manhattan where 45 lived before he became president.
What about Trump’s finances? Trump had announced that there was a red line between Mueller and his financial issues. What does Cohen know about Manafort sharing raw, complex Trump campaign data with the Russians?
The public needs to know, Schiff said. Trump should be willing to share this with the public if he is serious about exonerating himself.
Schiff furthered argued that the new Attorney General (AG) William (Bill) Bass cannot withhold the Mueller report from Congress. The reason is that would constitute immunity for Trump, which is not happening. The chair said that he will insist that all of the underlying (seized) evidence be included with a fulsome report to Congress.
The reason Barr was hired, according to This Week’s guest, was that he sent a long paper that came to Trump’s attention, saying that he was biased against the Mueller investigation. Plus, Bass was for the ideal that a sitting president could not be indicted. Barr has not recused himself even though ethics attorneys said that he should have done so. Finally, Schiff said that the AG should take care lest this tarnish his legacy.
If necessary, Schiff will use the committee’s subpoena power to get the full report. Should that not work, he will have Mueller testify before the committee and sue Trump for the information.
Featured image is a screenshot via YouTube.
