Adam Schiff says White House ‘hijacked’ House Russia probe transcripts

The White House has "hijacked" transcripts from the Home Intelligence Committee's Republican-led Russia investigation, delaying their release for months, Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) advised colleagues in a closed-door assembly last week.

The committee authorized the release of its 53 witness interview transcripts a yr ago, when Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) and Republicans led the panel. The transcripts have been submitted to the Workplace of the Director of National Intelligence for a evaluate to display out categorised info, and lawmakers had hoped for his or her fast public release. Nunes even indicated at the time that he hoped they can be out ahead of the 2018 congressional elections.

But Schiff told his committee on Sept. 17 that ODNI's assessment dragged on for months longer than anticipated before grinding to a halt in March, when intelligence officials stated they meant to share the transcripts with the White Home. Intelligence officers, Schiff stated, had asked permission to permit the White House to evaluate the transcripts to display out material that could be topic to government privilege.

"The White Home has, in a way, hijacked what should have been an uncontroversial simple evaluation of congressional transcripts to determine and redact any categorized info, and tried to increase it into an unsolicited after-the-fact evaluation for info purportedly protected by government privilege,” Schiff stated.

Schiff stated he vehemently objected to allowing the White House to evaluate the transcripts, arguing that the White House's "overly expansive" view of government privilege shouldn't be used to "claw again” info already given to Congress. Since then, he stated, he and his employees have been locked in negotiations to stop the White House from retroactively screening testimony the committee acquired.

"Negotiations now, after 10 months, are at an impasse and our endurance has been exhausted," Schiff stated.

Schiff nonetheless intends to launch the bulk of the Russia transcripts within the close to future. He stated ODNI has returned 43 of the 53 transcripts to the committee with categorized info redacted. Two others, which the White House has sought to evaluate, could be released because they have been determined to include no categorized info, so the committee can launch its own copy, Schiff stated. However the remaining eight, he stated, have been held "hostage."

"Because of this problem of government privilege, and on the course of the White Home, ODNI has refused to complete its evaluation of the remaining HPSCI transcripts, which it's holding hostage because the White House has tied its desired government privilege evaluate to ODNI's classification assessment," Schiff stated.

The White House did not reply to a request for comment.

In the course of the meeting, Republicans reiterated their help for releasing the investigation transcripts but made no touch upon Schiff's characterization of the dispute with the White Home. Nunes, as an alternative, stated the Office of the DNI was guilty of "dragging its ft."

"This is simply unacceptable," he stated. "The American individuals need to see the complete image and skim these transcripts, lots of which have been used to help the committee's investigative report on Russian interference within the 2016 U.S. presidential elections, which was released to the public in March 2018."

Schiff requested Nunes to weigh in with the intelligence group to encourage officials to finish their classification evaluation of the remaining eight transcripts.

"They usually can say, you recognize, the White Home has its position, and the White Home can talk about that with us," Schiff stated. “But all we are asking the ODNI is to inform us what's categorised."

Article originally revealed on POLITICO Magazine

Src: Adam Schiff says White House ‘hijacked’ House Russia probe transcripts
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