Adam Schiff's multifaceted plan to corner Trump on the money trail
by Daniel Chaitin
| November 23, 2018 09:30 PM
| Updated Nov 24, 2018, 01:11 AM
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., has some big plans next year when he takes the chairmanship of the House Intelligence Committee from Devin Nunes.
When Democrats take control of the House in January, Schiff will be able to do more than simply vent his frustration with the investigatory ventures prioritized by the outgoing GOP majority, as he'll have the privilege to set the committee agenda and the power of subpoena. Through a series of declarations and reports about an effort to gear up for brand new inquiries, one thing is clear about Schiff's plans: He's got his sights set on President Trump.
Among the projects to which Schiff is ready to commit are:
Schiff told the Washington Post that he plans to investigate the murder of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi, and furthermore, Trump's dismissal of the CIA's high-confidence conclusion that Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was behind the plot. “We’ll look at what the intelligence community assessments are at any given time,†Schiff told the Post's liberal columnist Greg Sargent. “Then it will be quite clear whether the president is relying on the intelligence community and our best source of information or whether the president is representing something very different.†He further stated Trump's financial ties to Saudi Arabia would be of top interest. "There are a whole set of potential financial conflicts of interest and emoluments problems that Congress will need to get to the bottom of," Schiff added.
Even before the 2018 midterm elections, Schiff was pledging to rekindle the intelligence panel's Russia investigation, which wrapped up earlier this year, finding no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin. Speaking with the Los Angeles Times, Schiff signaled that he and his Democratic allies would revive the probe, which they have long argued ended prematurely, and signaled that he aims to discover if Russia has any financial leverage over Trump. “The president has sought to keep that off-limits, but if that’s the leverage Russians pose, that’s a real threat to our country,†he said.
To this end, the Daily Beast reported this week that the Democrats in the House Intelligence Committee are seeking to hire money-laundering and forensic accounting experts to investigate Trump’s financial dealings. The potential hires would delve into unanswered financial questions pertaining to Trump and Russia. Schiff has expressed interest in Trump’s relationship with Deutsche Bank, which last year agreed to pay hundreds of millions to settle allegations that it helped Russians engage in money-laundering.
Schiff wants to examine whether Trump has tried to use "the instruments of state power to punish the press,†particularly the Washington Post and CNN. At issue is reporting that said Trump pushed the postmaster general to raise postal rates on Amazon, whose founder, Jeff Bezos, owns the Post. Schiff also wants to know if Trump tried to block AT&T’s merger with Time Warner as a form of retribution against CNN, which he regularly derides as "fake news." “It is very squarely within our responsibility to find out,†Schiff recently told "Axios on HBO."
Speaking broadly about the House under Democratic control, Schiff said earlier this month that his party plans to challenge the appointment of acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker, who came in after the forced resignation of Attorney General Jeff Sessions. In an op-ed, Schiff called for Whitaker to recuse himself from special counsel Robert Mueller's Russian investigation, which he had criticized in the past. “The president and Whitaker should heed this warning: The new Democratic majority will protect the special counsel and the integrity of the Justice Department," Schiff wrote.
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