Policy Issues / Woke and Weaponized

CRA Letter Calls on Office of Congressional Ethics to Investigate Rep. Adam Schiff

Summary

On June 15, 2023, the Center for Renewing America sent a letter to the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) requesting that OCE and/or the Committee on Ethics promptly investigate whether former House Intelligence Committee Chairman and Ranking Member Adam Schiff violated House rules and federal law. 

As the 300-page report from Special Counsel John Durham confirmed, the Hillary Clinton campaign concocted false allegations—including those contained in the Steele Dossier—regarding supposed “collusion” between the Trump campaign and Russia.  Durham determined that none of the Steele Dossier’s substantive allegations were ever corroborated and, as even CNN was forced to acknowledge, that the “FBI never should have launched [the] full Trump-Russia probe.” 

As CRA’s letter explains in detail, Schiff’s abuse of his position to perpetuate a false narrative about Trump-Russia collusion, without regard for the truth, repeatedly violated the requirement, in clause 1 of House Rule XXIII, that a “Member . . . of the House shall behave at all times in a manner that shall reflect creditably on the House.”  

Durham’s report also reveals how Schiff’s staff pressured university researchers, who were attending a briefing about the school’s federal research contracts, to analyze alleged links between Trump’s company and Russia’s Alfa Bank.  

As CRA’s letter explains, this action—which at least one researcher perceived as a “threat” —may have violated 5 U.S.C. § 7353(a)’s prohibition on congressional members or employees “solicit[ing] anything of value from a person seeking official action from, doing business with, or . . . conducting activities regulated by” the House. 

CRA’s letter also asks the Committee on Ethics impose appropriate disciplinary action, up to and including expulsion of Rep. Schiff from the House.