California Democratic Representative Adam Schiff has made strong allegations against Special Counsel John Durham, accusing him of displaying bias and attempting to downplay the allegations in the investigation of Russian collusion with former President Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
Schiff’s remarks shed light on the ongoing controversies surrounding the investigation and the differing perspectives on its findings.
Durham testified during a Wednesday hearing held by the House Judiciary Committee on the findings of his investigation. Multiple Democrats on the committee attacked Durham during the hearing.
WATCH:
“He was really trying to downplay the significance of the president’s son being offered dirt on Hillary Clinton, something that was represented of Don Jr. as part of the Russian government’s effort to help the Trump campaign, taking a secret meeting to receive that information along with the campaign chairman, Paul Manafort along with his brother-in-law Jared Kushner, he wanted to downplay it, he wanted to minimize it,” Schiff told MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace. “He wanted to suggest this happens all the time.”
Schiff often made claims about alleged collusion between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia after Trump defeated Hillary Clinton. Durham released a report on the origins of the FBI investigation of allegations that former President Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign colluded with Russia Monday that found that the FBI “did not and could not corroborate” the claims from the now-discredited Steele Dossier.
“In that answer and so many others what it really betrayed is exactly what he accused the FBI of, and that is confirmation bias,” Schiff said. “You could really see his bias into thinking that what the Trump campaign did was fine or he wasn’t going to call it collusion, even though there is no other name for what the Trump campaign tried to do.”
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy removed Schiff from the House Intelligence Committee Jan. 24, citing allegations that Schiff lied on multiple issues, including claiming that a laptop abandoned by Hunter Biden was Russian disinformation and his defense of the Steele dossier.
The House of Representatives passed a resolution by Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida that censured Schiff over his pushing of claims tied to Trump and Russia.
