Democratic Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA) is facing an ethics complaint filed by the Center for Renewing America regarding his repeated misinformation before the US Congress.
Schiff has long been accused of misleading the American public with his claims that he possessed evidence linking former President Donald Trump to Russia. The complaint filed by the Center for Renewing America calls for an expedited investigation by the Office of Congressional Ethics and/or the Ethics Committee. It also calls for appropriate disciplinary and remedial action, including the possible removal of Representative Adam Schiff from the United States House of Representatives.
The complaint by the Center for Renewing America highlights concerns surrounding Schiff’s alleged misrepresentation of facts and calls for a thorough examination of the issues outlined in the document. It is now up to the Office of Congressional Ethics and/or the Ethics Committee to review the complaint and determine the appropriate course of action.
“In January 2023, Chairman Kevin McCarthy rightly declined to appoint Schiff to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI), given Schiff’s misuse of HPSCI and the resulting undermining its national security and oversight missions while serving as chairman of that committee during the 116th and 117th Congresses,” the complaint states.
“On May 15, 2023, Special Counsel John Durham released a 300-page report on matters arising from the 2016 election (the Durham Report),” the report added. “The Durham report detailed how the Clinton campaign concocted false allegations about alleged ‘collusion’ between the Trump campaign and Russia.”
“These baseless claims were funneled to the gullible media, the intelligence community, and the FBI, which opened an investigation despite having NO evidence of collusion,” he continued the report “According to CNN,” concludes Special Counsel John Durham[d] [that the] The FBI should never have been launched [the] full investigation between Trump and Russia’”.
“Instead, they were drawn into a meeting with staff members working for Schiff on the House Intelligence Committee and [Senator Jack] Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee. Investigators said Democratic staff asked them to review. . . alleged ties between Trump’s company and Russia’s Alfa Bank.”
“When they rejected the request because it was ‘inappropriate’ conduct for a public university, Democratic staff issued what one investigator believed to be a ‘mild threat’ . . . [A] Schiff’s staff noted that the Democrat would soon take over as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, a Durham insider said. Although Durham declined to pursue possible “contractual fraud or misuse of government resources,” the HPSCI staff’s statements, which invoked Schiff’s authority and were likely directed by him, clearly violate the law .
“Specifically, 5 USC § 7353(a) prohibits members of Congress or employees from” requesting[ing] anything of value to a person: (1) seeking official action, doing business, or . . . carrying out activities regulated by the person’s employer; or (2) whose interests may be substantially affected by the performance or non-performance of the individual’s official duties.
“As the Ethics Committee’s ‘Gift Guidance’ succinctly notes, members of Congress and staff may ‘not solicit a gift’ . . .’ In this case, HPSCI staff working for Schiff sought something of value (uncompensated analysis) from people (university researchers) whose interests (government-funded research contracts) might have been affected by the performance or non-performance of the official duties of the staff.
“Schiff’s pernicious pattern of engaging in conduct that discredits the House, in a further violation of Rule XXIII, has extended far beyond the Russia deception. For example: October 2019 , the Washington Post analyzed Schiff’s public statement that HPSCI “had not spoken directly with the whistleblower” whose allegations instigated President Trump’s first impeachment. The Post concluded that “Schiff. . . clearly made a statement that was false.”
“In September 2020, Schiff responded to a report by two US Senate committees on Hunter Biden’s dealings as follows: “With the release of this report and two Senate Committee Chairmen promoting the same Russian disinformation, the Kremlin must be very pleased,” the complaint says.
On Wednesday, the House of Representatives voted on a motion to table, which ends a resolution that sought to censure Democratic Representative Adam Schiff. The motion, proposed by House Democrats, garnered enough support from Republicans to successfully block the censure effort. The final vote total was 225 to 196, with 20 Republicans infamously crossing party lines to join Democrats in introducing the resolution.
The resolution of censure, filed by Republican Representative Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, offered broad criticism of Schiff, focusing primarily on his role in previous investigations into the former president. After the failed attempt, Luna, a freshman Republican, expressed her intention to revise the measure to gain more support from her Republican colleagues. He promised to reintroduce the resolution next week.
The House’s decision to table the resolution of censure signifies the current lack of consensus among lawmakers over Schiff’s actions, highlighting the ongoing partisan divide in Congress.
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