Who does Adam Schiff think he is — Ken Starr?
The Democratic lawmaker (CA) is under fire after his party voted Thursday to establish rules for their impeachment inquiry that give Schiff nearly complete control. But Republicans are pushing back, and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), an America First patriot, is leading the charge.
Gaetz filed an ethics complaint in the House on Wednesday to open an investigation of Schiff’s mishandling of the inquiry, citing Schiff’s handling of the impeachment inquiry and his repeated lies about Russian collusion.
Gatez demands investigation into Schiff
It’s the latest of several attempts by House Republicans to censure Schiff, who they have repeatedly accused of running a “Soviet-style” process since Pelosi launched the inquiry in September. Last week, Gaetz led a group of House Republicans who crashed a secretive deposition before Schiff’s Intelligence committee to draw attention to the unfair process.
In a letter Wednesday, Gaetz called on the House Ethics committee to investigate Schiff over lies that he has told and rules that he has broken throughout the Ukraine drama. Schiff zeroed in on Schiff’s false impression of President Donald Trump’s phone call with Ukraine last month, which Gaetz said violated House rules.
“This behavior does not ‘reflect credibility on the House,’ nor does it follow ‘the spirit and the letter of the Rules of the House,’” Gaetz wrote. “It is incumbent on Members of Congress to be accurate and honest to the American people, and Chairman Schiff has been neither.”
Gatez said that Schiff’s “parody” could not be chalked up to an error in judgment, since he has shown a consistent pattern of “unprofessional and divisive” behavior, for example by repeatedly claiming, falsely, to have rock-solid evidence of Russian collusion. He noted that Republicans on the Intelligence committee have urged Schiff’s resignation from the chair.
The Republican also accused Schiff of breaking House rules by excluding House members from a secretive deposition in the Capitol basement last week. Republicans have accused Schiff of leaking testimony selectively to push a false narrative about president Trump and Ukraine.
Schiff takes total control over impeachment
Republicans have also criticized Schiff for lying about his foreknowledge of the “whistleblower” and his complaint. Schiff has notably insisted that the whistleblower’s testimony is no longer necessary since this coordination was discovered, but Republicans have insisted that Schiff confirm the whistleblower’s identity after a report emerged Wednesday that he is a CIA officer with ties to Joe Biden and John Brennan.
Democrats have repeatedly rebuffed criticism of Schiff, and in a Thursday vote to finally “authorize” the impeachment inquiry they demonstrated their confidence in him, giving significant powers to the Intelligence chairman. Indeed, it looks like Democrats are running roughshod right over the rights of Trump and the GOP by narrowing the inquiry, rather than opening it up.
Although Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) announced Monday that Democrats would vote to lay down ground rules to ensure due process for Trump, the resolution approved does exactly the opposite. It calls for Schiff’s Intelligence Committee to take control of the until-now secretive inquiry, leaving the Oversight and Foreign Affairs committees, which have so far played a role in interviewing witnesses, out of the loop.
Pelosi’s resolution was calculated to quash the Republicans’ process argument against the inquiry, and it does indeed include some token provisions for ranking Republican Devin Nunes (R-CA) to subpoena witnesses. But that right is subject to the whims of Schiff, who will also control public hearings as Democrats look to “open up” the process and make their case to the American people.
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