OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
California Democrat Senator-elect Adam Schiff is doubling down on his false, unfounded claims of Trump-Russian collusion years later.
In an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union,” host Jake Tapper questioned Schiff regarding President-elect Donald Trump’s recent cabinet picks, which included Florida Representative Matt Gaetz and former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
“You were censured in the House last year for, in their view, holding positions of power during the Trump presidency as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, and, according to them, ‘abusing this trust by saying there was evidence of collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia,’” Tapper said.
“And I wonder if you are feeling at all, introspective at all, about that was, according to the Mueller report and according to your Republican colleagues, an overstatement? And I wonder if you think, in any way, you helped set the table for these disruptors?” Tapper asked.
“First of all, it wasn’t an overstatement,” Schiff answered. “There is evidence of collusion. The Trump campaign manager was meeting with Russian intelligence and giving them internal polling data, just to give you one example. And the Mueller report sets all this out.”
“It does say, ‘The investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities,’ which doesn’t mean that he didn’t, that there weren’t meetings, but they didn’t find evidence of it,” Tapper followed up.
Schiff said, “Mueller says that, too. He says, ‘The fact that we didn’t find proof beyond a reasonable doubt doesn’t mean there wasn’t evidence of conspiracy or coordination.’”
The House of Representatives censured Schiff in 2023 in a party-line vote for his repeated allegations that Trump’s 2016 campaign conspired with Russia to gain the presidency. Earlier that year, he was also dismissed from the House Intelligence Committee.
His allegations were based on the notorious Steele dossier, which said that the Kremlin possessed blackmail information against Trump and that Trump’s team had conspired with Russia.
In his report, Special Counsel Robert Mueller concluded in 2019 that there was no proof of Trump’s collusion with Russia.
In 2021, Special Counsel John Durham accused Russian analyst Ivan Danchenko, who was thought to be the main subsource for the Steele dossier, of lying to the FBI, further undermining the dossier’s credibility.
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Last week, Schiff defeated Los Angeles Dodgers great Steve Garvey, the GOP candidate, in the U.S. Senate race in California.
Schiff will serve out the remainder of the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s Senate term, which ends in January, and, separately, to serve a new six-year Senate term.
Schiff has served in the House for the past two decades and gained national prominence when he led the first impeachment trial of Trump, advocating for his removal from office.
In his Senate campaign, Schiff focused on positioning himself as the foremost opponent of Trump, vowing to continue applying pressure on the Republican presidential nominee if Trump were to win a second term in the White House.
Trump, in turn, has called Schiff “the enemy from within” and a “sleazebag.”
“These are bad people,” Trump said. “We have a lot of bad people. But when you look at ‘Shifty Schiff’ and some of the others, yeah, they are, to me, the enemy from within.”
Last fall, Schiff came under fire over allegations that he has been claiming two primary residences in Maryland and California for more than ten years while taking advantage of homeowner tax breaks.
The controversies surrounding Schiff’s residential claims may cause problems for his January 2023 announcement of a U.S. Senate run.
For years, Schiff has been the owner of a large 3,420-square-foot house in Maryland. However, he has also claimed a homeowner’s tax exemption on a much smaller condo in Burbank, California, which is 650 square feet, and has designated it as his primary residence.
The congressman saved about $70 a year in property taxes as a result of this maneuver, which saved him $7,000 in total. Schiff did not request a comparable exemption for his property in Maryland.
Tax records reveal that 2017 was the only year Schiff paid property taxes in California using a personal check bearing his Maryland address, adding fuel to the controversy, according to CNN.
One insider told The New York Post that Schiff is “rarely at his California apartment,” which is a modest one-bedroom, one-bathroom residence.
“The revelation comes as Schiff faces stiff competition in the California Senate primary against fellow Democratic Reps. Katie Porter and Barbara Lee. Deed records reveal that Schiff designated his Maryland property as his primary residence in 2003 when he purchased it for $870,000,” the NY Post reported.
