Criticism is mounting against Rep. Adam Schiff for his handling of the whistleblower complaint — and how he’s conducting the Trump impeachment inquiry.
Schiff, the House Intelligence Committee chair leading the impeachment proceedings, was ripped Thursday over the closed-door testimony of former US envoy for Ukraine Kurt Volker.
Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan stormed out of the hours-long deposition and told reporters that Schiff wanted to limit certain members from questioning Volker.
The congressman also said Schiff had barred State Department lawyers from participating in the closed briefing.
“If this is how Mr. Schiff is going to conduct these types of interviews in the future,” Jordan said, “that’s a concern.”
Volker, who stepped down from his role last week, is the first witness in the congressional probe of the anonymous whistleblower complaint that included details of President Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky.
In the call, Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to probe the son of political rival Joe Biden.
Earlier Thursday, Schiff was ripped by liberal commentator Sam Stein for not disclosing that he was aware of the complaint before it was filed.
On MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Stein took issue with Schiff not revealing in a previous Sept. 17 interview that his committee had in fact spoken with the whistleblower.
“I will say, this puts him in some trouble,” Stein remarked Thursday.
“He clearly wasn’t being forthright in that interview with us a couple weeks ago. And he should have been.”
In the initial interview, Schiff claimed, “We have not spoken directly to the whistleblower — we would like to.”
But his answer runs counter to a revelation in a Tuesday New York Times report that said Schiff got a heads-up about the complaint days before it was filed.
The development led Rep. Devin Nunes, ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, to blast the impeachment as “orchestrated farce.”
“We learn from the press today that Chm Schiff had prior knowledge and involvement in the WB complaint,” Nunes wrote on Twitter.
“He withheld this info from the American people and even from the Intel Cmte. In light of this news, it’s hard to view impeachment as anything aside from an orchestrated farce.”
Congressional Democrats, however, have largely stood behind Schiff.
