Former NSC Chief Fleitz: Schiff 'broke' rules, 'should recuse himself from impeachment inquiry'

David Krayden
The Daily Caller
Thu, 03 Oct 2019 17:04 UTC

Adam Schiff, McCarthy wanna-be

Former CIA officer and National Security Council Chief of Staff Fred Fleitz tweeted Tuesday that House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff "broke committee rules" and "should recuse himself" from any impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump.

"The NYT confirmed what I said last week: Schiff knew about the CIA whistleblower in advance ... At a minimum, Schiff should recuse himself from this impeachment inquiry," Fleitz tweeted.

Fleitz was referring to a New York Times story reporting that California Democratic Rep. Schiff had prior knowledge of the whistleblower's declassified complaint.

© Reuters/Jonathan Ernst
U.S. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) joins Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to speak about Democratic legislative priorities and impeachment inquiry plans during her weekly news conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S., Oct. 2, 2019.

The former NSC chief of staff said Schiff is guilty of breaking Intelligence Committee rules by not sharing the whistleblower complaint with Republican members of the body because "classified info brought to the committee from outside sources MUST BE SHARED WITH BOTH SIDES."

Fleitz suggested last week in an op-ed for the New York Post, that after analyzing the whistleblower's complaint he found it too polished and that it had too much in common with the Democratic impeachment agenda — and an Aug. 28, 2019 tweet from Schiff.

"This document looks as if this leaker had outside help, possibly from congressional members or staff," Fleitz wrote.

Fleitz, currently the President and CEO of the Center for Security Policy, insisted it's "more than a coincidence that this complaint surfaced and was directed to the House Intelligence Committee just after Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), an outspoken opponent of Trump, expressed numerous complaints in August 2019 accusing the President of abusing aid to Ukraine to hurt Joe Biden."

David Krayden, Daily Caller's Ottawa Bureau Chief, is a weekly newspaper columnist, conservative political pundit and communications expert who was formerly an Air Force public affairs officer and communications manager on Parliament Hill.

Comment: More from ZeroHedge:

While President Trump is now accusing Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) of 'helping to write' a CIA whistleblower's complaint at the heart of an impeachment inquiry, the New York Times is out with a Wednesday article designed to put distance between the House Intelligence Committee Chairman and the accusation - suggesting Schiff had no more than a vague sneak peek.

As The Times reports, "The Democratic head of the House Intelligence Committee, Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, learned about the outlines of a C.I.A. officer's concerns that President Trump had abused his power days before the officer filed a whistle-blower complaint," adding "the original accusation was vague," and "The aide did not share the whistle-blower's identity with Mr. Schiff or anyone else."

So - according to the Times, Schiff kinda sorta knew what the whistleblower said, and a House Intel Committee aide told him (or her) to get an attorney - Andrew Bakaj - who "interned for Schumer in the spring of 2001 and for Clinton in the fall of the same year," per The Federalist.

The Times goes to great lengths to explain that nothing was untoward.

"Like other whistle-blowers have done before and since under Republican and Democratic-controlled committees, the whistle-blower contacted the committee for guidance on how to report possible wrongdoing within the jurisdiction of the intelligence community," said Schiff spokesman Patrick Boland.

Trump, meanwhile, is gunning for Schiff.

On Wednesday, Mr. Trump said Mr. Schiff should be forced to resign for reading a parody of the Ukraine call at a hearing, an act Mr. Trump has called treasonous and criminal.

"We don't call him shifty Schiff for nothing," said Mr. Trump. "He's a shifty dishonest guy."

Mr. Schiff's aides followed procedures involving the C.I.A. officer's accusations, Mr. Boland said. They referred the C.I.A. officer to the inspector general for the intelligence community, Michael Atkinson, and advised him to seek legal counsel.

Mr. Schiff never saw the full complaint or knew precisely what the whistle-blower would deliver to Mr. Atkinson, Mr. Boland said. - NYT

GOP spokeswoman Elizabeth Harrington, meanwhile, responded to the Times' article - calling the whistleblower saga 'COLLUSION' and a 'CON JOB' in a Wednesday afternoon tweet.

Finally, if this process seems vaguely familiar, it's because it should be: as the Federalist's Sean Davis writes, this is a carbon copy of what happened with Christine Blasey Ford's accusations aimed at sabotaging Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation.