The Ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee Thinks Republicans May Shut Down the House’s Trump-Russia Investigation

Adam Schiff’s star has risen along with the rest of Trumplandia this year, as his prosecutorial background has served him well in this Trump-Russia madness. He has led the Democrats’ push to dig down to the bottom of this ordeal, and today, he took to Twitter to sound the alarm.

Since March, our investigation has made important progress. We’ve interviewed numerous key witnesses behind closed doors, held public hearings, reviewed thousands of documents, identified new leads — all to understand and expose Russia’s meddling and protect our democracy.

— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) December 15, 2017

It appears Republicans want to conduct just enough interviews to give the impression of a serious investigation.

— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) December 15, 2017

Despite our repeated urging, Majority has declined to issue subpoenas in numerous avenues of the investigation, where there’s simply no other way to get the information. Some refusals we’ve made public, like witnesses hiding behind nonexistent privileges, many others we haven’t.

— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) December 15, 2017

Beyond our investigation, here’s what has me really concerned: The attacks on Mueller, DOJ and FBI this week make it clear they plan to go after Mueller’s investigation.

Aggressively and soon.

— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) December 15, 2017

By shutting down the congressional investigations when they continue to discover new and important evidence, the White House can exert tremendous pressure to end or curtail Mueller’s investigation or cast doubt on it. We cannot let that happen.

— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) December 15, 2017

Shutting down the House investigation would not shut down the entire investigation. For the Republicans to get rid of special counsel Bob Mueller, it would require action to be taken by the Deputy Attorney General (since the Attorney General recused himself from this investigation), who said this week that he is satisfied with Mueller’s progress, and sees no reason to cut his inquiry short. Given the competency gap between a former FBI agent versus Congress, it’s clear which one is more important, so if we had to sacrifice any of the three Trump-Russia investigations (House, Senate, Mueller), the House would be the obvious candidate to go.

This is a worrying development, but it’s not surprising. The Republican Party does not believe in the rule of law for themselves, as this is proven when you contrast their perpetually rabid Benghazi hearings to their apprehension over investigating an assault on our elections that the entire intelligence community believes was perpetrated by the Russians, and may have been aided by members of the Republican presidential nominee’s camp. If this exact same scenario occurred—but to aid a Democratic presidential candidate—you can be certain that Republicans would not threaten to squash the inquiry before it was completed.

Jacob Weindling is a staff writer for Paste politics. Follow him on Twitter at @Jakeweindling.