Participating in a field hearing of the House Judiciary Committee held in Manhattan on Monday, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) blasted the proceedings as a targeted spectacle meant to undercut the local district attorney who was partly responsible for a recently approved criminal case in the area against Donald Trump.
Schiff accused Republican members of the panel of essentially jumping onboard as de facto members of the former president’s legal defense team. The hearing in New York on Monday was meant to highlight supposed problems with crime in the city, which in trying to tie claimed problems with violence to Democratic leadership is a consistent theme of Republicans’ rhetoric, even though the actual facts of living in these places often aren’t remotely as harrowing as they claim. Individual anecdotes, like from a witness who shared how members of his family were unfortunately intimidated at the prospect of using the city’s subway system, don’t reflect everyone!
“Since the former president’s indictment, the Manhattan district attorney has been the subject of countless death threats and racist diatribes,” Schiff observed. “Others have made ugly appeals to anti-Semitism in an effort to attack the proceedings. And this committee — this committee has used every means at its disposal to disrupt, interrupt, and interfere with the prosecution, demanding documents it has no right to obtain and no jurisdiction to demand, subpoenaing a former deputy district attorney and threatening to subpoena the DA himself, and now, holding this hearing in Manhattan in a vain attempt to intimidate or embarrass the prosecutorial authority.”
Schiff’s comments were briefly interrupted by a loud heckler who was quickly removed by police. “Our role should be to defend the rule of law, not tear it down,” Schiff said after resuming. “We should be defending the principle that no one is above the law, not attempting to establish a new principle that if you are politically powerful enough, you get a pass. We should be defending the independence of the grand jury and the safety of a public servant enforcing the law, not adding to the dangers to both.”
Check out Schiff’s comments below:
