After a troubled two months that saw the “temporary” recusal of Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA), the House Intelligence Committee’s ranking member, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), announced Friday that the panel’s investigation into Russia’s interference in the U.S. election was “back on track.”
Schiff and the new senior Republican on the committee, Rep. Mike Conaway (R-TX), sent out letters asking key Obama administration officials and senior intelligence officials to testify before the committee.
FBI Director James Comey and National Security Advisor Adm. Mike Rogers were invited to appear at a closed hearing on May 2, according to a statement from Schiff’s office. Former CIA Director John Brennan, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates also were asked to appear in an open hearing that would be scheduled after May 2.
Those officials were initially scheduled to come before the committee in March. But Nunes scrapped their appearances after going public with claims that he’d seen intelligence reports that showed information about President Donald Trump and his staffers was “incidentally collected,” and Nunes asserted that the identities of those persons were inappropriately unmasked in the reports.
Other lawmakers from both parties who later viewed the same reports said the documents showed no evidence of wrongdoing. At the time of the cancelations, Schiff charged that Nunes was trying to “choke off” public information about the Russia probe.
Are these hearings going to be about fears of pearl-clutching “leaks” to the press, or about DJT’s Russian ownership?
I’m willing to bet that the Republicans on the committee will do their best to at least hijack the open hearings into focusing on the former and looking at Susan Rice.
Yates will be the only one worth paying attention to. Clapper? How many times must a man lie to congress, before they stop asking him back?( ♫♬)
Rep. Adam Schiff = the right person at the right place at the right time
ETA: he has some serious chops in what he is doing, he is not easily thrown off course, and he’s going to need every ounce of his skill and experience in the role he’s in.
I will be interested in seeing how Nunes sulks in open hearings… or whether he skips out altogether.