Schiff: White House ‘Pushing Back’ on House Intel Investigation into Russia Ties

The fight roiling the House Intelligence Committee shows no signs of abating, with ranking member Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) accusing chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) of undermining the investigation into President Donald Trump’s ties to Russia, after Nunes cancelled an open hearing scheduled for next week.

Speaking to reporters at the Capitol, Nunes announced Friday that the House Intelligence Committee’s open hearing on March 28 would be postponed and replaced by a closed session featuring FBI director James Comey and NSA chief Mike Rogers, who testified in an open session Monday. Former Obama administration officials had been set to testify during the March 28 hearing.

Schiff immediately attacked the move by Nunes and accused the Republican chairman of running political interference for the White House.

“I think this is a serious mistake,” Schiff said of the cancellation. He suggested that  Nunes may have cancelled the hearing as a result of “push back” from the White House after Monday’s open hearing.

“It’s hard for me to come to any other conclusion about why an agreed-upon hearing would be suddenly cancelled,” Schiff said.

He called once again for an independent commission to investigate Trump’s potential ties to Russia. Anyone watching the events of this week, Schiff said, has “legitimate, profound concerns about whether this Congress indeed can do a credible investigation.

In Monday’s hearing, Comey announced that the FBI is investigating Russia’s campaign to influence the 2016 election, and that the investigation includes an examination of Trump and his lieutenant’s possible coordination with the Kremlin. The supposed links between Trump associates and Russia have become clearer this week, after several media outlets reported that U.S. officials have evidence linking the Trump campaign to Russia.

Comey and Rogers may have incurred the White House’s wrath after they both said that they have no evidence to corroborate Trump’s unsubstantiated claims that his predecessor, U.S. President Barack Obama, ordered him wiretapped.

On Wednesday, Nunes held two press briefings without Schiff, one on the Hill and one at the White House, to reveal that the intelligence community incidentally collected information on individuals involved in the Trump campaign. Nunes spoke to the press, the White House, and then the press again before speaking to Schiff, who said Nunes’s actions were politically motivated and said that he had severely undermined the credibility of their investigation.

“In an effort to further justify the unjustifiable,” Schiff said on Friday of Nunes and Trump’s wiretap claims, “he is now interfering in this investigation.”

Nunes also said on Friday that Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chair in the spotlight for his links to Russia, offered to testify before the House Intelligence Committee. He did not specify whether that would be in an open or closed session.

Since Monday’s hearing, Manafort, who ran Trump’s campaign for several months last year, has been accused of hiding a $750,000 payment in 2009 from his former client, Ukraine’s ex-president Viktor Yanukovych. He also reportedly worked as far back as 2005 to further Russian President Vladimir Putin’s interests by quashing anti-Russian opposition in countries that were once the Soviet Union for millions of dollars a year.

Later Friday, Trump advisers Roger Stone and Carter Page also volunteered to speak to the House Intelligence Committee. Stone’s attorney specified his preference for an open session.

Despite offers to testify in the House, Schiff suggested the political infighting on his committee may be making it impossible for the panel to do its work.

“I think that one of the profound takeaways of the past couple days is we really do need an independent commission here. Because the public at the end of the day needs to have confidence that someone has done a thorough investigation untainted by political considerations,” Schiff said.

He’s not alone. On Friday, after Nunes’s briefing, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said, “I have significant concerns about the intelligence committee’s ability to get to the bottom of this issue.” Earlier this week, he said that Congress lost “credibility” to investigate, and called for an independent investigation.

Update, March 24 2017, 2:32 pm ET: This post was updated to include Stone and Page’s offers to testify.

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