Schiff Accuses Nunes Of Inhibiting Probe, Calls For Independent Commission

Adam Schiff has just given a press conference that should effectively kill the investigation into whether the Trump campaign, transition, and administration has colluded with the Russians in the House Intelligence Committee and will probably be the first step to moving this investigation out of Congress to an independent commission or other separate investigation.

Schiff was responding to the news that committee chairman Devin Nunes has unilaterally cancelled an open hearing of the committee scheduled for Tuesday with Clapper, Brennan, and Sally Yates. This follows on Nunes’ claim earlier this week that Trump associates and perhaps even Trump himself were incidentally picked up in legal foreign surveillance and “unmasked”, to use Nunes’ own words, with the clear suggestion that the unmasking was improper. And, although Nunes agreed that Obama did not wiretap Trump, he again implied that the Trump campaign was “monitored”, a statement that Trump took as vindication of his claim.

Nunes did not share the alleged information that he had received that prompted his claims with other members of the Intelligence Committee as is customary. Instead, he took this information to Speaker Paul Ryan who apparently advised him to take the information to the White House, which he dutifully did, holding a press conference in front of the White House after his meeting. This created the incredible scenario where the head of an investigation was actually briefing a potential target of that investigation on information about the investigation.

Nunes was supposed to share the information he had received that prompted his claim with the Committee today. Not only has he apparently not done so, but now he has cancelled the open hearing scheduled for Tuesday. In addition, there are now questions whether Nunes actually received the information from the White House itself, specifically because Trump indicated he knew what Nunes was going to brief him in an interview with Time before Nunes actually came to the White House.

This was not the first time that Nunes has displayed rank partisanship in his role as Committee Chairman. Last month, the White House recruited Nunes and his counterpart in the Senate to debunk the rumors of Trump associates ties to Russia to news agencies in calls orchestrated by the White House. It is also worth noting that Nunes himself was on the Trump transition team, supposedly focusing on national security.

In addition, Schiff specifically charged Nunes and, by implication if not by name, the White House, of attempting to “choke off public information” about the possible collusion of Trump associates with Russia. In addition, he also said that it may be time to move the investigation to an independent commission.

This press conference shows a complete breakdown between Nunes and Schiff which virtually makes moving the investigation forward impossible. It is also important to note that no one, not even Paul Ryan at whose discretion Nunes serves, is coming to Nunes’ defense. With the potential devastating loss on health care and the partisan unraveling of the Intelligence Committee, Paul Ryan’s leadership will again be seriously questioned. He is already not a very popular Speaker even within his own caucus and now it appears the White House is already sharpening the daggers to blame Ryan if health care fails. And remember that Steve Bannon has in the past vowed to remove Ryan as Speaker.

But by far the biggest takeaway from Schiff’s press conference is the end of bipartisanship on the House Intelligence Committee. This is yet another norm of our democracy that the GOP has now effectively destroyed. The Intelligence Committee originates no legislation and is solely tasked with overseeing our national security apparatus, both of which are designed to maintain and protect its non-partisanship. Trump, Ryan, and Nunes have effectively destroyed that. Someday, Republicans are going to have to learn to govern rather than act in a perpetual hyper-partisan fashion. Destroying the bipartisan nature of an intelligence committee only puts the country at risk.