House Intel GOP Boycott Schiff and Intel Committee to Force Hearings on FISA Abuse

Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Adam Schiff, D-Calif., left, listens as tracking member rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., questions former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch at the House Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, Nov. 15, 2019. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Adam Schiff and Devin Nunes

Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Adam Schiff, D-Calif., left, listens as tracking member rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., questions former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch at the House Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, Nov. 15, 2019. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

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But you wouldn’t know it with what they cover and what they don’t. It says everything about the bias of the chairman, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA). They spent months on impeachment which shouldn’t have been done at all but if if was going to be done in the House, it’s generally handled by the House Judiciary Committee.

Meanwhile what they haven’t covered are things they are supposed to cover – like the FBI FISA abuse that was outlined in DOJ IG Michael Horowitz’s report and the Republican members of the Committee have had enough.

From Daily Caller:

In a rare move, the Republican members of the House Intelligence Committee boycotted a hearing scheduled for Wednesday morning, saying that Chairman Adam Schiff has “strayed” from conducting business relevant to the panel, including by failing to hold a hearing over the Justice Department inspector general’s report on FBI abuses of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

“Under your chairmanship, the House Intelligence Committee has strayed far from its mandate of overseeing the Intelligence Community,” the Republicans wrote in a letter to Democrats obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation just before the start of a hearing for the Strategic Technology and Advanced Research Subcommittee.

“In fact, we have gone months at a time in which we’ve hardly held any oversight-related briefings or hearings at all,” they wrote.

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Republicans noted that during this time many important things that needed to be reviewed were not, including the FISA abuse, that no hearings have been held since the IG report was released.

From Fox News:

“During this period of inadequate oversight, numerous critical issues pertinent to this Committee’s jurisdiction were ignored,” they continued, noting that DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz issued his FISA report on Dec. 9 which identified “seventeen serious shortcomings related to the conduct” of the surveillance of former Trump campaign foreign policy aide Carter Page.

The Republicans argued that the committee is “uniquely positioned to consider” the “serious legal and policy questions” that arose from Horowitz’s report.

“The IG Report was followed by the release of a declassified assessment by the Department of Justice acknowledging that at least two of the four FISA applications lacked probable cause,” they continued. “Despite the seriousness of these issues and our clear jurisdiction, you have failed to hold a single briefing or hearing on this matter.”

They added: “Until the Committee prioritizes oversight activities related to urgent and critical concerns, Republican Members cannot support distractions from our core responsibilities.”

“We hope this Committee can move past political investigations and publicity stunts and get back to the important work we traditionally have undertaken on a bipartisan basis,” they concluded.

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The letter was signed by Republican Reps. Michael Conaway, Michael Turner, Brad Wenstrup, Rick Crawford, Elise Stefanik, Will Hurd, and John Ratcliffe.

The FBI Director has also admitted that Carter Page was surveilled illegally and the FISA Court has demanded that the FBI present a plan for reform to stop the FISA abuse that was observed from happening again.

But Congress has done nothing in response in their oversight capacity because of Schiff. Schiff who basically denied that the abuse had occurred prior to the IG report doesn’t want hearings to reveal everything that had gone on.

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