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House intelligence Republicans call on Chairman Adam Schiff to resign

Posted at 8:47 AM, Mar 28, 2019
and last updated 2019-03-28 11:00:42-04

By Jeremy Herb, CNN

The nine Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee have signed a letter calling on House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff to resign as chairman, Rep. Mike Conaway, the Republican who led the panel’s Russia investigation, said Thursday.

Conaway pointed to the release of the special counsel’s summary on Sunday to accuse Schiff, a California Democrat, of having “abused your position to knowingly promote false information.”

“Your actions both past and present are incompatible with your duty as chairman,” Conaway said at the beginning of a public committee hearing on Russian money laundering. “We have no faith in your ability to discharge duties.”

The call from the Republicans on the committee for Schiff to step down escalate the Republican attacks on Schiff, who has come under fire for his claims of collusion after Attorney General Bill Barr’s letter to Congress quoted special counsel Robert Mueller’s report as saying it “did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.”

Trump tweeted on Thursday morning that Schiff should resign from Congress.

Rep. Devin Nunes, the committee’s top Republican who was chairman of the committee in the last Congress, said Thursday: “We should not be used as a platform to spread false information and bizarre conspiracies.”

Schiff has not backed down in the wake of the Mueller summary, saying his committee will continue its investigation and that Congress and the public still need to see the full Mueller report. He responded to the criticisms on Thursday by accusing Republicans that they “think it’s OK” members of Trump’s team were willing to accept dirt from Russians.

“I don’t think it’s OK. I think It’s immoral, I think it’s unethical, I think it’s unpatriotic, and yes, I think it’s corrupt, and evidence of collusion,” Schiff said. “I do not think that conduct, criminal or not, is OK. And the day we do think that’s OK, is the day we look back and say that is the day America lost its way.”