White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders threw some serious shade at Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calf.) on Tuesday during the daily press briefing, telling reporters that the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee is of absolutely no concern to the Trump administration.
A reporter wanted to know if the White House was concerned about something Schiff had been harping about in media appearances — namely, that many of the leaked questions from special counsel Robert Mueller to President Trump seemed to point to an obstruction of justice charge against the president.
Asked to comment on Schiff’s remarks, Sanders was brutally dismissive of the California congressman. “We here at the White House try never to be concerned with anything dealing with Adam Schiff,” she quipped.
Rep. Schiff fired back at Sanders Tuesday afternoon on Twitter:
If you’re not concerned, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, why won’t the President agree to an interview with Bob Mueller? His protestations of “no collusion, no obstruction” would be more convincing if he wasn’t trying to dodge answering questions under oath. https://t.co/Hl87a3Fp8b
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) May 1, 2018
Of course, Schiff’s question is intellectually dishonest. Many legal experts weighing in on the matter have argued that in order to avoid a perjury trap, Trump should only agree to an interview with Mueller under very limited, tightly-defined circumstances — if at all.
Famed lawyer and Harvard Professor Alan Dershowitz on Monday said the list of open-ended questions may even have been “specifically drafted to trip Trump up if he provides long-winded responses.”
“They are really designed to let him ramble and talk, and I suspect that’s the strategy of the special counsel because they know that may be President Trump’s weakness,” Dershowitz told CNN.
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