19 Mar 2017 11:13 am
Ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff, on Meet The Press today:
CHUCK TODD: When FBI Director James Comey testifies before the House Intelligence Committee tomorrow, we can expect to hear about two stories that have dominated the news.
1) Evidence that the Russians interfered with the 2016 election, perhaps on behalf of the Trump campaign and
2.) the committee has asked the FBI to turn over any evidence it has to support President Trump's allegations that President Obama wiretapped Trump Tower prior to the election.
Congressman Adam Schiff is the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee.
You will see him a lot tomorrow. And he joins me here now for a preview.
Congressman Schiff, welcome back to the show.
REP. ADAM SCHIFF: Thanks. Great to be with you.
CHUCK TODD: Let me start with your two witnesses tomorrow are going to be the FBI director and the National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers. What do you hope - what light will be shed tomorrow, do you hope?
REP. ADAM SCHIFF: I think for a lot of Americans this will be the first time to really tune in to exactly what the Russians did and what the investigation involves and I'd like to walk through with both directors: What do we know about the Russian operation? What was its breadth?
REP. ADAM SCHIFF: We know it was hacking and dumping of documents. We know their slick use of their media campaign.
But more than that I think we want to share with the country why we're so concerned about the issue of US person involvement.
Were there US persons who were helping the Russians in any way. Was there any form of collusion?
And what can we do to protect not only ourselves in the future and our allies who are facing the same Russian onslaught right now?
CHUCK TODD: But if this is an ongoing investigation by the counter-terrorism unit in the FBI. What do you think Dir. Comey can say publically?
REP. ADAM SCHIFF: Well, on the issue of collusion he'll probably be the most limited in what he can share, but there's a lot he can tell us about the Russian motivations for their intervention in our election, how the Russians operate in Europe, what techniques they use and what we should be on the lookout for in our investigation in Europe and other places we've seen them use blackmail, use compromise, use the natives of those foreign countries that they're intervening in, how they use paid social media trolls, so the full range of Russian intervention and what that looks like.
So I think fleshing out why this ought to matter to Americans. I think people need to understand we are in a global war of ideas.
It's not communism vs. capitalism, but it is authoritarianism vs. democracy and Putin is very much at the vanguard of that autocratic movement and that ought to concern all of us.
CHUCK TODD: Let me ask you about - you received information on Friday from the Department of Justice about President Trump's claims on wiretapping.
What can you tell us? Were you satisfied with the information they provided?
REP. ADAM SCHIFF: Well, I got a classified briefing on their response.
They delivered it after most of us had left town.
But once again no evidence to support the President's claim that he was wiretapped by his predecessor.
And you know, I have a lot of respect for Susan Collins, but I have to differ with her on this, she said we need to get to the bottom of this. We are at the bottom of this.
CHUCK TODD: Is there any bottom? We are at the bottom?
REP. ADAM SCHIFF: There is nothing at the bottom.
CHUCK TODD: Will Director Comey say that definitively tomorrow, do you expect?
REP. ADAM SCHIFF: I expect that he will. And I hope that we can put an end to this wild goose chase because what the president said was just patently false.
And the wrecking ball it created now has banged into our British allies and our German allies, it's continuing to grow in terms of damage, and he needs to put an end to this.
I suspect what's really at root here, Chuck, is this is just how the president does business.
Now maybe this is the way he conducted his real estate business with half-truths and sometimes no-truths, and a lot of bluster.
That, in my opinion, is no way to run a business. But it's an even worse way to run a country.
It's dangerous to us, it's already alienating allies, and as George Will so correctly pointed out, when there is a crisis over North Korea or Iran or whatnot, and every president has one in their term, we need to be able to believe our president and he's making it very, very difficult.
CHUCK TODD: I want to get to the point of, look, collusion is sort of what hasn't been proven here between whatever the Russians did and the Trump campaign.
In fact, the former acting director of the C.I.A., Mike Morell, who was a supporter of Hillary Clinton, he essentially reminded people, took Director Clapper at his word on this show who said, "There has been no evidence that has been found of collusion."
Are we at the point of, at what point do you start to wonder if there is a fire to all this smoke?
REP. ADAM SCHIFF: Well, first of all, I was surprised to see Director Clapper say that, because I don't think you can make that claim categorically, as he did.
I would characterize it this way, at the outset of the investigation, there was circumstantial evidence of collusion. There was direct evidence, I think, of deception.
And that's where we begin the investigation.
Now I don't want to prejudge where we ultimately end up, and of course, there's one thing to say there's evidence.
There's another thing to say we can prove this or prove it beyond a reasonable doubt, or there's enough evidence to bring to a grand jury for purposes of criminal indictment.
But there was certainly enough for us to conduct an investigation.
The American people have a right to know, and in order to defend ourselves, we need to know whether the circumstantial evidence of collusion and direct evidence of deception is indicative of more.
CHUCK TODD: Well I want to get to the witness list here. You have subpoena power if you choose to use it. But you and Congressman Nunes need to come to an agreement on that. Is he willing to use subpoena power?
REP. ADAM SCHIFF: He's going to have to be willing to use subpoena power, because there will be people we need to bring in before the committee who may not be willing witnesses.
And if we're going to do this credibly, and right now, we're the only game in town, we and the Senate Intelligence Committee, we're going to need the power of compulsion.
You know, I still think we have a lot of spade work to do before that.
You don't want to bring the witnesses in before you've reviewed the evidence that you want to question them with.
You may only get one shot at the witnesses. But we're going to have to do that.
CHUCK TODD: But you guys seem far behind.
The Senate Intel Committee has already been asking Roger Stone, a one-time advisor of President Trump, who admitted some at least communication with Julian Assange of WikiLeaks.
He's been ordered to preserve documents, sort of to make sure he doesn't destroy any documents, sort of, perhaps he is going to be subpoenaed by them.
Have you done that with any, have you formally sent letters to any potential witnesses to say, "Hey, you need to make sure you have saved any documents related to the campaign or Russia"?
REP. ADAM SCHIFF: You know, I think we were the first to send letters to the U.S. government to tell them to preserve evidence.
CHUCK TODD: What about outside folks? So Mike Flynn, Carter Page, Roger Stone?
REP. ADAM SCHIFF: We have not yet sent letters to individuals. And I think it's a good practice.
I'm not sure that if you have someone who wants to hide, that that letter's going to have the effect that it ought to.
But nonetheless, there is a great deal that we are doing.
And I think in some respects, we are ahead of where this Senate investigation is, in some respects, they're ahead of where we are.
I do think, look, at the end of the day, the real question where the rubber will really hit the road, is as you suggest, when we have to use compulsion to get documents that we need, to bring in witnesses.
I hope the answer is going to be yes from the majority. I also do think though--
CHUCK TODD: But right now, you have not been given that authority?
REP. ADAM SCHIFF: Well, we haven't asked for it.
CHUCK TODD: Or you haven't asked for it? Okay.
REP. ADAM SCHIFF: To subpoena certain witnesses. But we will be. There are a lot of witnesses that we're going to want to--
CHUCK TODD: Devin Nunes agrees with you on this?
REP. ADAM SCHIFF: Well, he's going to have to. Otherwise we really can't do our job.
CHUCK TODD: Which means he doesn't yet agree with you on it?
REP. ADAM SCHIFF: Oh, you know, I don't want to say that.
CHUCK TODD: Okay.
REP. ADAM SCHIFF: You know, we hammered out a very detailed agreement that allows us to look into issues like collusion with U.S. persons, people in the Trump campaign.
That's what we wanted, that's what we got, and we have to hold him to that commitment.
CHUCK TODD: Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on House Intel, we'll be watching your hearing tomorrow. Thanks for coming on today.
REP. ADAM SCHIFF: You bet.
http://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/m ... 17-n735421
REP. ADAM SCHIFF: I would characterize it this way, at the outset of the investigation, there was circumstantial evidence of collusion.
There was direct evidence, I think, of deception.
That's what I keep saying.
People who are being deceptive have something to hide.
If it's not collusion, it could be something else.
CHUCK TODD: When FBI Director James Comey testifies before the House Intelligence Committee tomorrow, we can expect to hear about two stories that have dominated the news.
1) Evidence that the Russians interfered with the 2016 election, perhaps on behalf of the Trump campaign and
2.) the committee has asked the FBI to turn over any evidence it has to support President Trump's allegations that President Obama wiretapped Trump Tower prior to the election.
Congressman Adam Schiff is the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee.
You will see him a lot tomorrow. And he joins me here now for a preview.
Congressman Schiff, welcome back to the show.
REP. ADAM SCHIFF: Thanks. Great to be with you.
CHUCK TODD: Let me start with your two witnesses tomorrow are going to be the FBI director and the National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers. What do you hope - what light will be shed tomorrow, do you hope?
REP. ADAM SCHIFF: I think for a lot of Americans this will be the first time to really tune in to exactly what the Russians did and what the investigation involves and I'd like to walk through with both directors: What do we know about the Russian operation? What was its breadth?
REP. ADAM SCHIFF: We know it was hacking and dumping of documents. We know their slick use of their media campaign.
But more than that I think we want to share with the country why we're so concerned about the issue of US person involvement.
Were there US persons who were helping the Russians in any way. Was there any form of collusion?
And what can we do to protect not only ourselves in the future and our allies who are facing the same Russian onslaught right now?
CHUCK TODD: But if this is an ongoing investigation by the counter-terrorism unit in the FBI. What do you think Dir. Comey can say publically?
REP. ADAM SCHIFF: Well, on the issue of collusion he'll probably be the most limited in what he can share, but there's a lot he can tell us about the Russian motivations for their intervention in our election, how the Russians operate in Europe, what techniques they use and what we should be on the lookout for in our investigation in Europe and other places we've seen them use blackmail, use compromise, use the natives of those foreign countries that they're intervening in, how they use paid social media trolls, so the full range of Russian intervention and what that looks like.
So I think fleshing out why this ought to matter to Americans. I think people need to understand we are in a global war of ideas.
It's not communism vs. capitalism, but it is authoritarianism vs. democracy and Putin is very much at the vanguard of that autocratic movement and that ought to concern all of us.
CHUCK TODD: Let me ask you about - you received information on Friday from the Department of Justice about President Trump's claims on wiretapping.
What can you tell us? Were you satisfied with the information they provided?
REP. ADAM SCHIFF: Well, I got a classified briefing on their response.
They delivered it after most of us had left town.
But once again no evidence to support the President's claim that he was wiretapped by his predecessor.
And you know, I have a lot of respect for Susan Collins, but I have to differ with her on this, she said we need to get to the bottom of this. We are at the bottom of this.
CHUCK TODD: Is there any bottom? We are at the bottom?
REP. ADAM SCHIFF: There is nothing at the bottom.
CHUCK TODD: Will Director Comey say that definitively tomorrow, do you expect?
REP. ADAM SCHIFF: I expect that he will. And I hope that we can put an end to this wild goose chase because what the president said was just patently false.
And the wrecking ball it created now has banged into our British allies and our German allies, it's continuing to grow in terms of damage, and he needs to put an end to this.
I suspect what's really at root here, Chuck, is this is just how the president does business.
Now maybe this is the way he conducted his real estate business with half-truths and sometimes no-truths, and a lot of bluster.
That, in my opinion, is no way to run a business. But it's an even worse way to run a country.
It's dangerous to us, it's already alienating allies, and as George Will so correctly pointed out, when there is a crisis over North Korea or Iran or whatnot, and every president has one in their term, we need to be able to believe our president and he's making it very, very difficult.
CHUCK TODD: I want to get to the point of, look, collusion is sort of what hasn't been proven here between whatever the Russians did and the Trump campaign.
In fact, the former acting director of the C.I.A., Mike Morell, who was a supporter of Hillary Clinton, he essentially reminded people, took Director Clapper at his word on this show who said, "There has been no evidence that has been found of collusion."
Are we at the point of, at what point do you start to wonder if there is a fire to all this smoke?
REP. ADAM SCHIFF: Well, first of all, I was surprised to see Director Clapper say that, because I don't think you can make that claim categorically, as he did.
I would characterize it this way, at the outset of the investigation, there was circumstantial evidence of collusion. There was direct evidence, I think, of deception.
And that's where we begin the investigation.
Now I don't want to prejudge where we ultimately end up, and of course, there's one thing to say there's evidence.
There's another thing to say we can prove this or prove it beyond a reasonable doubt, or there's enough evidence to bring to a grand jury for purposes of criminal indictment.
But there was certainly enough for us to conduct an investigation.
The American people have a right to know, and in order to defend ourselves, we need to know whether the circumstantial evidence of collusion and direct evidence of deception is indicative of more.
CHUCK TODD: Well I want to get to the witness list here. You have subpoena power if you choose to use it. But you and Congressman Nunes need to come to an agreement on that. Is he willing to use subpoena power?
REP. ADAM SCHIFF: He's going to have to be willing to use subpoena power, because there will be people we need to bring in before the committee who may not be willing witnesses.
And if we're going to do this credibly, and right now, we're the only game in town, we and the Senate Intelligence Committee, we're going to need the power of compulsion.
You know, I still think we have a lot of spade work to do before that.
You don't want to bring the witnesses in before you've reviewed the evidence that you want to question them with.
You may only get one shot at the witnesses. But we're going to have to do that.
CHUCK TODD: But you guys seem far behind.
The Senate Intel Committee has already been asking Roger Stone, a one-time advisor of President Trump, who admitted some at least communication with Julian Assange of WikiLeaks.
He's been ordered to preserve documents, sort of to make sure he doesn't destroy any documents, sort of, perhaps he is going to be subpoenaed by them.
Have you done that with any, have you formally sent letters to any potential witnesses to say, "Hey, you need to make sure you have saved any documents related to the campaign or Russia"?
REP. ADAM SCHIFF: You know, I think we were the first to send letters to the U.S. government to tell them to preserve evidence.
CHUCK TODD: What about outside folks? So Mike Flynn, Carter Page, Roger Stone?
REP. ADAM SCHIFF: We have not yet sent letters to individuals. And I think it's a good practice.
I'm not sure that if you have someone who wants to hide, that that letter's going to have the effect that it ought to.
But nonetheless, there is a great deal that we are doing.
And I think in some respects, we are ahead of where this Senate investigation is, in some respects, they're ahead of where we are.
I do think, look, at the end of the day, the real question where the rubber will really hit the road, is as you suggest, when we have to use compulsion to get documents that we need, to bring in witnesses.
I hope the answer is going to be yes from the majority. I also do think though--
CHUCK TODD: But right now, you have not been given that authority?
REP. ADAM SCHIFF: Well, we haven't asked for it.
CHUCK TODD: Or you haven't asked for it? Okay.
REP. ADAM SCHIFF: To subpoena certain witnesses. But we will be. There are a lot of witnesses that we're going to want to--
CHUCK TODD: Devin Nunes agrees with you on this?
REP. ADAM SCHIFF: Well, he's going to have to. Otherwise we really can't do our job.
CHUCK TODD: Which means he doesn't yet agree with you on it?
REP. ADAM SCHIFF: Oh, you know, I don't want to say that.
CHUCK TODD: Okay.
REP. ADAM SCHIFF: You know, we hammered out a very detailed agreement that allows us to look into issues like collusion with U.S. persons, people in the Trump campaign.
That's what we wanted, that's what we got, and we have to hold him to that commitment.
CHUCK TODD: Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on House Intel, we'll be watching your hearing tomorrow. Thanks for coming on today.
REP. ADAM SCHIFF: You bet.
http://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/m ... 17-n735421
REP. ADAM SCHIFF: I would characterize it this way, at the outset of the investigation, there was circumstantial evidence of collusion.
There was direct evidence, I think, of deception.
That's what I keep saying.
People who are being deceptive have something to hide.
If it's not collusion, it could be something else.