Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, appeared on The View Tuesday while promoting his new book, and found himself getting grilled by guest host Morgan Ortagus for his role in disseminating the bogus Steele dossier.
“You defended, promoted and even read into the congressional record the Steele dossier. We know last week the main source of the dossier was indicted by the FBI for lying about most of the key claims in that dossier,” Ortagus said to Schiff, referencing the indictment of Igor Danchenko, who was indicted last week by Special Counsel John Durham. “Do you have any reflections on your role in promoting this to the American people?”
Schiff, naturally, avoided answering the question, opting instead to change the subject to President Trump. He criticized Trump for pardoning Roger Stone and Michael Steele, who had been swept up in the bogus investigation of Russia collusion. The Department of Justice dropped their case against Michael Flynn last year after it became clear he was the victim of an entrapment scheme by the FBI.
Related: Schiff: ‘History Will Rebuke Donald Trump and Everyone Who Stood With Him’
When Ortagus pushed back, Schiff again tried to rehash bogus claims of Russian collusion, almost as if they haven’t already been debunked. But Ortagus wouldn’t let him get away with it.
“You may have helped spread Russian disinformation yourself for years by promoting this. I think that’s what Republicans and what people who entrusted you as the intel committee chair are so confused about—your culpability in all this,” Ortagus said.
“I completely disagree with your premise. It’s one thing to say allegations should be investigated, and they were. It’s another to say that we should have foreseen in advance that some people were lying to Christopher Steele, which is impossible, of course, to do,” Schiff retorted.
The contents of the Steele dossier have long been recognized as lacking credibility.
Nevertheless, Schiff still seems to be clinging to the debunked Russian collusion narrative, claiming that the Danchenko indictment shouldn’t excuse Trump’s “culpability” for, among other things, colluding with Russia in 2016—which, as we know, never happened.
“None of that serious misconduct is in any way diminished by the fact that people lied to Christopher Steele,” Schiff said.
“No, I think just your credibility is,” Ortagus told him.
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