California Senator-elect Adam Schiff defended his claims of Russian collusion years later during a recent appearance on CNN’s "State of the Union."
Host Jake Tapper asked Schiff Sunday about President-elect Donald Trump’s recent controversial cabinet nominations, such as former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz. Although Tapper referred to these nominees as "disruptors," he wondered whether there was introspection in Washington over inspiring them.
"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?"
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"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.’"
In 2023, Schiff was censured in a party-line vote by the House of Representatives over his repeated claims Trump’s 2016 campaign colluded with Russia to win the presidential election. He was also removed from his position on the House Intelligence Committee earlier that year.
His claims stemmed from the infamous Steele dossier which claimed that Trump’s team had colluded with Russia and that the Kremlin had blackmail material against Trump. In 2019, Special Counsel Robert Mueller later concluded in his own report that there was no evidence Trump had colluded with Russia.
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The Steele dossier was further discredited in 2021 after Special Counsel John Durham charged Russian analyst Ivan Danchenko, who was believed to be the dossier’s primary sub-source, with making false statements to the FBI.
