Schiff Raises Russia Collusion in Durham Hearing Hours Before Censure Vote for ‘Misleading’ PublicAshley Oliver 21 Jun 2023 Washington, DC
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), whom the House is expected to censure Wednesday evening for “misleading the American public,” doubled down on allegations about Russia collusion hours before the censure vote was set to take place.
Schiff, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, made the remarks during a committee hearing featuring former special counsel John Durham, using his time to question Durham on Trump campaign activity in 2016 and criticize Durham for downplaying it.
“Are you really trying to diminish the significance of what happened here?” Schiff asked in one instance, pointing specifically to a much-discussed 2016 meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and a Kremlin-linked lawyer.
Schiff asked, “You think it’s insignificant that he had a secret meeting with a Russian delegation for the purpose of getting dirt on Hillary Clinton and the only disappointment expressed in that meeting was that the dirt they got wasn’t better?”
Durham replied to Schiff, “I don’t think that that [meeting] was a well-advised thing to do.”
“Oh, not well-advised? Well that’s the understatement of the year,” Schiff shot back as he continued to harp on the meeting.
Durham’s testimony comes after he released a report in May brutally rebuking the FBI’s handling of the Trump-Russia investigation and ultimately finding the FBI should never have opened a full probe into it.
Schiff also emphasized that former special counsel Robert Mueller’s report, which was released in 2019 following the FBI’s probe, found that Russia meddled in the 2016 election in favor of former President Donald Trump.
Mueller “could not establish the crime of conspiracy [with Trump] beyond a reasonable doubt” but that “does not mean there was no evidence of those facts, ” Schiff said, observing that Durham’s report did not contradict Mueller’s.
Schiff’s Democrat colleagues on the Judiciary Committee at times deferred their allotted speaking time to the California Democrat, giving him extra opportunities to air his grievances about the years-long Trump-Russia saga, which Schiff had a key role in probing while serving as the top Democrat on the House Intel Committee.
At one point during the hearing, Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA) named Schiff directly, highlighting past comments Schiff has made, such as there being “clear evidence on the issue of [Trump-Russia] collusion” and that that evidence was in “plain sight.”
Durham told Kiley he did not believe the Mueller report supported such statements by Schiff:
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https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/06/21/schiff-raises-russia-collusion-in-durham-hearing-hours-before-censure-vote-for-misleading-public/
