One of the most unprincipled and dishonest members of Congress is about to get his long overdue comeuppance.
Back when the House Intelligence Committee still had professional and competent leadership and was focused on oversight of the Intelligence Community rather than a den of low IQ Machiavelli wannabes, back when actual hearings were conducted on actual issues rather than hanging on the words of a bewhiskered pencil-necked Eric Ciarmarella and a gravy-oozing Alexander Vindman, the committee conducted extensive interviews of 53 officials from the Intelligence Community, the FBI, and Justice to determine what evidence existed of any collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia (SPOILER ALERT: there was none). Once the interviews were finished, the committee unanimously voted to release the transcripts. The transcripts were forwarded to the office of the Director of National Intelligence for declassification review and redaction of sensitive information…which is anything that exposes national security information, sources and methods, or tends to expose the routine levels of duplicity and dumbf***ery that takes place within the intelligence agencies.
This is the list of witnesses:
That should have been the end of the story. But the vote took place in September 2018 and in November 2018 the House flipped and Adam Schiff became chairman of the committee. Since then, the transcripts have been in limbo. Neither Dan Coats nor his successor, Joseph Maguire, placed a very high priority on exposing the attempted coup against President Trump that was hatched by James Clapper and John Brennan and so the matter sort of went fallow.
Since then, though, a lot of things have happened. The Mueller report revealed the degree to which the entire investigation was a fraud designed to force Trump from office and, failing that, hamstring his ability to govern. Mueller’s major prosecution against Concord Catering has melted down. A failed attempt at impeachment was launched by Schiff. The Flynn guilty plea is totally discredited and all that remains is for the judge to toss the case or for Trump to issue a pardon. Devin Nunes’s investigation into the Carter Page FISA warrants has been totally vindicated and Schiff’s memo defending the warrants has been shown to be a series of lies detached from any relationship to the truth. More importantly, the Steele Dossier, which Schiff fluffed for four years, has been revealed to be an utter fabrication and known as such since before Mueller was appointed special counsel. And a fairly extensive purge of the office of the Director of National Intelligence has removed the bollards who covered for bad actors and installed former Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell as director. Adam Schiff was not pleased to see his cabal of allies at DNI shown the door.
We now have an intelligence chief who should not have been fired, an unqualified nominee who should not be confirmed, and an acting director who is patently unfit.
All while our elections are perilously at risk of foreign interference.
Just the way the President likes it. https://t.co/P8Px2E6F6r
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) February 29, 2020
Even though we know the declassification process is complete, Schiff took it upon himself to abrogate a vote by the House Intelligence Committee and order the DNI to not release the transcripts to anyone including the White House or Department of Justice.
READ: New: Schiff Demanded the DNI Not Share Evidence From HIC’s Russia Investigation With White House
Unsuprisingly, it didn’t take long for Schiff and Grenell to openly clash. Schiff tried to interfere in the internal management of the DNI and received a public humiliation that is rarely visited upon a committee chairman.
READ: Richard Grenell Wire Brushes Adam Schiff in a Scathing Reply to Schiff’s Stupid Demands
This seems to have emboldened Republican members of the House Intelligence Committee and yesterday they made a public demand for the release of the transcripts.
🔔#HappeningNow: @JudiciaryGOP and @GOPoversight Republicans demand release of @RepAdamSchiff's secret Russia transcripts.
The American people deserve transparency. pic.twitter.com/i63QSIs2S3
— House Judiciary GOP (@JudiciaryGOP) May 5, 2020
Now Grenell has weighed in on the issue. In a letter obtained by the Washington Examiner’s Byron York, Grenell has told Schiff the documents are going to be released no matter how many angry memos Schiff writes:
Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell has sent a letter to chairman Adam Schiff notifying him that transcripts of all 53 interviews, over 6,000 pages in all, have been cleared for public release. “All of the transcripts, with our required redactions, can be released to the public without any concerns of disclosing classified material,” Grenell wrote to Schiff in a letter dated May 4.
…
In the letter, Grenell revealed that the 43 transcripts have been finished since June 2019. Schiff has been sitting on them all that time. Grenell said the final ten have just been finished as well. “I urge you to honor your previous public statements, and your committee’s unanimous vote on this matter, to release all 53 cleared transcripts to Members of Congress and the American public as soon as possible,” Grenell said. Just in case Schiff is still not interested, Grenell added, “I am also willing to release the transcripts directly from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, as to ensure we comply with the unanimous and bipartisan vote to release the transcripts.”
Imagine reading Congressional transcripts where 53 mostly Obama-era people are asked “Do you have any evidence of Collusion?” and getting 53 negative responses. That’s what Schiff doesn’t want anyone to see https://t.co/uBJrld2pUZ
— Undercover Huber (@JohnWHuber) May 6, 2020
This is long overdue and the transcripts, as everyone knows, will show that no one anywhere in the government had anything that could be mistaken for evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. What they will also show is the extent to which Schiff was willing to tell lies to the media and to the public and to his colleagues in order to forward his personal agenda of trying to overthrow the President of the United States.
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