Last updated on February 11th, 2019 at 03:13 pm
House Intelligence Committee chairman Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) isn’t doing a full investigation into Trump‘s finances and not waiting for the Mueller report.
Transcript via Meet The Press:
CHUCK TODD:
Can I pause you there? How would you not know if he’s– would Mueller, wouldn’t Mueller warn you, “Okay, I’m in the middle of investigating this. So be patient here and wait till my report,” if he were–
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REP. ADAM SCHIFF:
Not necessarily.
CHUCK TODD:
I mean, what– okay.
REP. ADAM SCHIFF:
I mean, we’re doing our best to de-conflict with him. But up until now, that’s been a non-issue because in the minority in the last two years, the Republicans would not do any investigation, wouldn’t do a credible investigation of the Russia links, certainly wouldn’t look into the president’s finances. So there was nothing to de-conflict as long as they were in charge. But the reason I am concerned about it, Chuck, is there has been reporting that when it was alleged that the special counsel had subpoenaed Deutsche Bank, that the president moved to fire Mueller. And the way they talked him off the ledge was by promising that that reporting wasn’t true, that the special counsel hadn’t subpoenaed Deutsche Bank. Well, if the special counsel hasn’t subpoenaed Deutsche Bank, he can’t be doing much of a money laundering investigation. So that’s what concerns me, that that red line has been enforced, whether by the deputy attorney general or by some other party at the Justice Department. But that leaves the country exposed. I find it, you know, just remarkable, Chuck, that the President of the United States as a candidate, as the presumptive nominee, could be pursuing business with the Kremlin and lying about it, and —
CHUCK TODD:
But isn’t that what the Mueller probe ultimately is about? Why not wait for that before pursuing a money laundering investigation?
REP. ADAM SCHIFF:
Well, if, if we had waited to do any of our investigative work for the Mueller investigation, we would have been waiting a year and a half. And we have a separate and independent and important responsibility. And that is to tell the country what happened. Mueller, ultimately, his job is to determine who broke the law and who should go to jail. But as we have seen from Bill Barr’s testimony, there is no commitment by this Justice Department under Whitaker and there’s no commitment apparently under Barr, should he be confirmed, to share that evidence with the Congress or the American people, so we need to find it ourselves.
Video:
Adam Schiff Is Doing The Investigation That Should Have Been Done
In case Trump was thinking about delaying Schiff by burying the Mueller report, that strategy is now dead in the water. House Democrats had said that they would wait for the Mueller report before making any decisions on impeachment. They have since moved that timetable up because the evidence of Trump’s crimes is growing by the day.
Trump is losing it on Schiff because he is going to do what this president has always feared the most. He is going to follow the money and connect the dots on Trump‘s career of crime.
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Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
