The Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee were not in agreement with the majority party in issuing subpoenas to the Justice Department and Federal Bureau of investigation over the Trump dossier, says the panel’s ranking Democrat, Adam Schiff, D-Calif.
“I do have concerns with the majority issuance of these subpoenas to the DOJ and FBI. That was done over our opposition in the minority,” Schiff said in an interview on MSNBC Tuesday evening, hours after the Washington Examiner reported that the committee had sent subpoenas to FBI Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
The committee is running one of a handful investigations, along with a federal probe, into President Trump’s potential ties to Russia and Russian interference in the 2016 election. Schiff expressed concern that the GOP majority has a motive to try to vindicate Trump by painting a target on the author of the dossier, Christopher Steele, rather than trying to disprove the allegations within the dubious dossier, including collusion between Trump and Russia.
“I think there’s a view if they discredit Christopher Steele, they can discredit the whole Russia investigation, or the whole Russia involvement in our elections,” he said.
.@RepAdamSchiff confirms that the House Intel Cmte has subpoenad the DOJ & the FBI for docs related to the dossier https://t.co/oukb3kJFtM— Hardball (@hardball) September 5, 2017
While investigators have for months tried to obtain information from the DOJ and FBI, Schiff criticized the majority for jumping to subpoenas. He claimed they did so without sending an official request for documents in letter or some other written form.
“Instead, the first the department got was a subpoena. That is just not good practice,” he said.
While Schiff complained of subpoenas that were fired off too quickly, committee member Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., told the Washington Examiner he lamented that the months-long process of reaching out to these agencies led nowhere. “We got nothing,” he said.
“The witnesses have not been produced, and the documents have not been produced,” he said, adding that “a subpoena is a tool of last resort in Congress.”
Schiff does, however, advocate the use of a subpoena on the White House, in order to get to the bottom of President Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey. The GOP majority has blocked that effort, Schiff alleged.
“This kind of disparate treatment concerns us greatly,” he said.
