Brendan McDermid/Reuters
- House Intelligence Committe chairman Adam Schiff delivered a roughly five-minute speech slamming President Donald Trump and Republicans after they called on him to resign.
- Schiff broke down what he said was "evidence of collusion" between the Trump campaign and Russian in 2016.
- "You might say that’s all OK. You might say that’s just what you need to do to win. But I don’t think it’s OK. I think it’s immoral. I think it’s unethical. And I think it is unpatriotic," Schiff said.
After President Donald Trump and other Republicans called on him to resign, the House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff on Thursday slammed the president and his associates in a five-minute speech on Russia.
In his remarks, Schiff gave a rundown of what he contended was "evidence of collusion" between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin during the 2016 election campaign.
The California lawmaker referenced Jared Kushner’s efforts to establish a backchannel between the Trump transition team and Moscow and the Trump Tower meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and a Kremlin-linked lawyer.
He also talked about the former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort’s offer of internal polling data to a source allegedly tied to the Kremlin, among other allegations that have come up via the broader probe into Russian election interference.
"You might say that’s all OK. You might say that’s just what you need to do to win. But I don’t think its OK. I think it’s immoral. I think it’s unethical. And I think it is unpatriotic," Schiff said in an address to his colleagues.
"And yes, I think it is corrupt. And evidence of collusion," Schiff added.
Earlier on Thursday, Trump tweeted, "Congressman Adam Schiff, who spent two years knowingly and unlawfully lying and leaking, should be forced to resign from Congress!"
All of the nine Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee also signed a letter on Thursday calling for Schiff to resign.
This all comes less than a week after special counsel Robert Mueller delivered his report on Russia election interference to Attorney General William Barr. Based on a summary Barr subsequently gave to Congress, the special counsel did not reach the conclusion the Trump campaign colluded with the Kremlin.
Barr also said that while Mueller’s "report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him" on the issue of obstruction of justice.
The attorney general then said he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein concluded Trump should not face an obstruction charge based on the evidence available.
Barr is now set to deliver the report to the White House for review before any of it is made public, which has prompted fears from Democrats that the president will exert executive privilege to hide any potentially damning details.
Read more: William Barr’s summary of the Mueller report is a 2-edged sword that could both help and hurt Trump
Congressional Democrats have consistently demanded the report be made public and polling shows a majority of Americans, including Republican voters, would also like Mueller’s report to be made public.
Mueller’s final report was reportedly over 300 pages, while Barr’s summary was just four pages, leading to many questions about what details it contains.
See Also:
- ‘There’s nothing routine about this’: Barr’s move to send Mueller’s report to the White House before the public sets off alarm bells
- James Comey says the Justice Department’s findings on Russia is ‘good news no matter what’
- Prosecutors left a trail of breadcrumbs about Trump’s finances, and House Democrats are now digging deeper
Source: Business Insider – feedback@businessinsider.com (John Haltiwanger)