REP. ADAM SCHIFF: TRUSTWORTHY?

     Does witness tampering usually happen in the courtroom? Not exactly. There have been cases where members of Congress were perceived to have unethically spoken with witnesses before, and during hearings, mainly those who sit on committees whose job is to have oversight of intelligence. A case of witness tampering has come up, and thanks to the oversight of Judicial Watch, we’re able to get a closer look at this.

     House Code of Official Conduct, Rule 23, clauses 1 and 2, states:

1. A Member, Delegate, Resident Commissioner, officer, or employee of the House shall behave at all times in a manner that shall reflect creditably on the House.

2. A Member, Delegate, Resident Commissioner, officer, or employee of the House shall adhere to the spirit and the letter of the Rules of the House and to the rules of duly constituted committees thereof.

     So, who exactly are we speaking about in this case? None other than Rep. Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Schiff has been known as one of the Democratic weasels in Congress who would like nothing better than to see President Trump removed from office. Not only that, he has been a ring-leader in trying to find anything he can to start an investigation on President Trump. Early on in the investigation of “Trump-Russia Collusion,” Schiff said on CNN that “We are still at the very early stage of the investigation. The only thing I can say is that it would be irresponsible for us not to get to the bottom of this." Bottom of what? So far, I haven’t seen any relevant “collusion” evidence come forward that needed “getting to the bottom of.”

     However, Schiff has been caught with persons of interest in the case of Hillary Clinton colluding with Russia to get a fake, made-up dossier that the FBI used to obtain a FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) warrant to spy on Carter Page of the Trump campaign. (I’ll explain that in another column.) During an Aspen security conference in July of 2018, Schiff was seen speaking briefly with Glenn Simpson. Glenn Simpson has been a person of interest to the Clinton collusion case simply because he ran a firm (Fusion GPS) that was hired by the Clinton campaign and the DNC to dig up dirt on then-candidate Donald Trump. John Solomon of The Hill writes: “He employed retired British intelligence operative Christopher Steele, whose infamous and unverified dossier became the main evidence for the FBI’s probe of the Trump campaign, particularly the surveillance warrant against Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.” It’s worth noting that Fusion GPS is, in the words of Glenn Simpson himself, “a commercial research firm, sometimes also does strategy, public affairs. The primary line of work we're in is research. Generally, it specializes in public records research, other sort of journalistic style information gathering.”

     Now, it’s often speculated that there is nothing wrong with an unintended meet-up at a security conference by a witness of an FBI investigation and a member of Congress, but for those who have followed the case, it does make you think. What did they have to discuss in such a short period of time? And was this meet-up “unintended?” Only time will tell.

     What we really need to come back to is in recent news, it’s been noted that Schiff met with Michael Cohen four separate times (which lasted in total for ten hours) shortly before the high-profile testimony to Congress on February 27th. Republicans, especially Rep. Devin Nunes, has suggested that he met with Cohen to “coach” him on testifying. According to Gregg Re and Catherine Herridge of Fox News, sources said “the sessions covered a slew of topics addressed during the public hearing before the oversight committee -- including the National Enquirer’s ‘Catch and Kill’ policy, American Media CEO David Pecker, and the alleged undervaluing of President Trump's assets.”

     Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio noted that he found the meetings “unusual,” and accused Lanny Davis, who was Michael Cohen’s attorney, of coordination of the hearing. “They did 10 hours of preparations with the witness and he came into Congress and still lied to us,” said Jordan in a later statement. “Understand what took place here. Lanny Davis coordinated and choreographed this whole thing. He told our staff, ‘I planned this hearing, I picked this committee, I had to persuade Michael Cohen to do it.’ Maybe most importantly he said ‘I had to persuade chairman Cummings to do it.’” Schiff told CBS that, “The extent of my contact was just inviting him to testify and also trying to allay his concerns about the President's threats against him and his family, but our staff certainly sat down to interview him and that's what you do in any credible investigation.”

     While we’re on the subject, I find it quite unusual myself that sitting down to privately interview a witness of a Congressional investigation is “what you do.” Should Adam Schiff have had a minority member of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee sitting with him? And why was he interested in even interviewing Cohen? I also find his interest in even speaking with Glenn Simpson unusual. The Deep State is deeper than any average American citizen can think possible, but with Donald Trump in the office of the Presidency, things may turn up revealing what has been boiling around the dark shades of the United State federal government.

Anthony Mixer is the Chief Editor and a weekly columnist for As a Matter of Fact.

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