Ratcliffe: Adam Schiff Is Running A Corrupt Process To Overthrow Trump thefederalist.com/2019/11/01/rep…
“It’s more than just bias—it’s an actual legal conflict of interest,” Ratcliffe said. “Schiff is using his authority as a Chairman presiding over an impeachment inquiry to prevent the investigation and discovery of facts about his own actions or the actions of his staff.”
“He is essentially a witness in the trial over which he is presiding,” Ratcliffe continued. “He has a conflict of interest because his testimony is relevant to the origins of the impeachment process that he is simultaneously conducting, directing and managing.”
Although Schiff initially claimed he and his staff had never interacted with the anti-Trump complainant and didn’t even know who he was, the NY Times reported the whistleblower secretly coordinated with Schiff’s staff, who then urged him to file a complaint against the president.
“The person who planted fake evidence shouldn’t be the one ruling on the admissibility of fake evidence,” Ratcliffe said on Friday.
Testimony by Intelligence Community IG, Michael Atkinson revealed the whistleblower, whom Real Clear Investigations has identified as former NSC staffer and current CIA analyst Eric Ciaramella, concealed his contacts with Schiff from the ICIG in his complaint form.
If the anti-Trump complainant did, in fact, refuse to disclose previous disclosures of his allegations to Congress or the news media, he could be subject to felony criminal penalties for making false statements.
The final portion of the whistleblower form requires whistleblowers to attest under penalty of perjury that they have neither misstated nor concealed material facts in their complaints.
Schiff has refused to detail the breadth of his interactions with the anti-Trump complainant or explain why he lied about his staff’s collusion with the complainant. Ratcliffe told The Federalist that Schiff’s behavior was an “outrageous offense to legal due process.”
“Chairman Schiff has likewise refused to allow any inquiry by Republicans into these material facts which may bear on the credibility and motivation of the whistleblower and perhaps Chairman Schiff,” Ratcliffe said.
“Chairman Schiff is a material fact witness in the same impeachment inquiry that Democrats have authorized him to preside over,” Ratcliffe continued. “It’s an outrageous offense to legal due process and any standard of fairness.”
Earlier this year, all nine Republican lawmakers on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence called on Schiff to step down as chairman due to his repeated lies about treasonous Russian collusion by the president.
“The findings of Special Counsel conclusively refute your past and present assertions and have exposed you as having abused your position to knowingly promote false information, having damaged the integrity of this Committee, and undermined faith in US government institutions,”
“Your actions both past and present are incompatible with your duty as Chairman of this Committee, which alone in the House of Representatives has the obligation and authority to provide effective oversight of the U.S. intelligence community,” they continued.
“As such, we have no faith in your ability to discharge your duties in a manner consistent with your Constitutional responsibility and urge your immediate resignation as Chairman of this Committee.
