Durham Tears Schiff to Shreds with a Subtle Line That References the Congressman's Past
June 21 wasn’t a great day for California Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff.
During a congressional hearing, former special counsel John Durham calmly put Schiff in his place with a few well-placed words.
Schiff, who was being targeted by a censure resolution in the House on the same day, attempted to assert that Donald Trump Jr. had committed a crime by hosting a meeting at Trump Tower in 2016 during his father’s campaign for the presidency against Democrat Hillary Clinton.
“Are you aware, Mr. Durham, that Mueller and congressional investigations also revealed that Don Jr. was informed that a Russian official was offering the Trump campaign, quote, ‘very high-level and sensitive information,’ unquote, that would be incriminating of Hillary Clinton and was part of, quote, ‘Russia and its government’s support of Mr. Trump?’ Are you aware of that?” Schiff asked Durham, about the 2:15 mark in the video below.
“Sure, people get phone calls all the time from individuals who claim to have information like that,” Durham replied.
“Really? The son of a presidential candidate gets calls all the time from a foreign government offering dirt on their opponent. Is that what you’re saying?” Schiff responded.
“I don’t think this is unique in your experience,” Durham replied.
WATCH: Complete exchange between @RepAdamSchiff and John Durham.
Schiff: “Really the son of a presidential candidate gets calls all the time from a foreign government offering dirt on their opponent?”
Durham: “I don’t think this situation is unique in your experience.” pic.twitter.com/WKiKgBL3CK
— CSPAN (@cspan) June 21, 2023
Durham was referring to a humiliating situation involving Schiff, when the California congressman fell victim to a prank phone call by Russian comedians.
In March 2017, as the U.K. Daily Mail reported, the comedians, known as Vovan and Lexus, posed as a Ukrainian politician and offered Schiff compromising information on Donald Trump, including alleged nude photos depicting the president and a Russian reality show star.
After the prank call, Schiff’s staffers engaged in correspondence with the supposed Ukrainian politician, seeking to obtain the “classified” material promised during the call.
Let’s remember, since Adam Schiff couldn’t in the Durham hearing, that Adam Schiff was pranked by comedians claiming to be the Ukraine Speaker in 2017. Schiff took it hook line and sinker. Bloomin IDIOT. pic.twitter.com/vkC8ogzMz1
— Booker (@BookerSparticus) June 21, 2023
The audio recording of the prank call was posted online. It captured Schiff discussing the committee’s Russia investigation and entertaining increasingly bizarre allegations about Trump.
Schiff appeared to take the call seriously.
“He wrote all what we said on the paper,” Lexus told the Daily Mail in a report published in February 2018. “Remembered all the details.”
Vovan also told Schiff that the Ukrainians had recorded secret meetings between a Trump campaign aide and a famous Russian singer-turned-spy at an imaginary mafia hangout in Brooklyn, New York.
Emails provided by the comedians show Schiff’s staff discussing the promised material and expressing that the call was “productive,” according to the Daily Mail, although Schiff’s office later claimed to have known the call was bogus.
Adam Schiff questioning the legality of attempting to collect incriminating evidence on the opposition, considering his own track record, is like finding a speck in his opponent’s eye when he has a log in his own.
In 2017, as New York Post columnist Paul Sperry wrote in January, Schiff used a televised House Intelligence Committee hearing to read aloud a series of conspiracy theories about Trump and Russia from the Steele dossier that was funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign.
Schiff presented them as if they were undeniable facts. However, as evidenced by court documents from Durham and the findings of Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz, every single one of those claims was false.
The following year, Schiff lied about a memo, written by then-House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, which exposed FBI abuse of the FISA wiretap process in relation to the surveillance of Trump campaign aide Carter Page.
Schiff claimed Nunes had misled the public by stating that the FBI heavily relied on the discredited dossier to obtain the warrants.
However, in 2019, a report by Horowitz proved that it was Nunes who had been telling the truth.
Shortly after the exchange with Durham, the House voted along party lines to censure Schiff for his actions during the Trump-Russia investigation.
According to an NPR report, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, who led the effort to censure Schiff, summarized Schiff’s disgraceful actions that led to the censure, saying, “Mr. Schiff exploited his position as chair of Intel Committee, and every opportunity possible, threatening national security, undermining our duly elected president and bringing dishonor upon the institution.”
Turns out Adam Schiff doesn’t just have a log in his eye; it’s an entire forest.
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