Adam Schiff Confusion: Says Trump ‘Intervened’ with DOJ

The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee has called for a new investigation of President Donald Trump — for exercising his constitutional authority.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) reacted to reports that Trump pushed the Justice Department to lift a “gag order” on an informant who says he has information about a bribery scandal surrounding Russia’s efforts to acquire a company that controls 20 percent of U.S. uranium reserves.

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“If President personally intervened w DOJ to advance case against political opponent it’s beyond disturbing; I intend to pursue in new probe,” he tweeted.

Norm Eisen, who served as special counsel for ethics and government reform in President Barack Obama’s White House, chimed in Friday on CNN. He told anchor Brooke Baldwin that he never heard of Obama doing something similar.

“It’s pretty extraordinary to have a president make his wishes known when you have a criminal matter of this kind going on at DOJ,” he said. “There are rules in the White House and the DOJ that are designed to protect political influence.”

But those rules apply to the White House staff, not the president, according to former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy.

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“They couldn’t, because it would be unconstitutional,” said McCarthy, who oversaw the federal case related to the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993 and later wrote a book laying out the case for impeaching Obama.

McCarthy acknowledged that presidents in recent decades have kept an arm’s length between themselves and the Justice Department.

“For political reasons, it is smart for the president not to intrude into law enforcement decisions for political reasons,” he said.

But McCarthy added that the president is the supreme executive official under the Constitution and has complete authority over the entire executive branch. Therefore, he said, it not only is lawful for him to urge the Justice Department to take an action — he legally could outright order it.

“What Schiff is doing … is treat[ing] the Justice Department and the FBI as if they were separate branches of government,” he said. “This is completely political.”

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters Friday that Trump’s desire was to push for the nondisclosure agreement to be rescinded in order to aid congressional probes begun this week to review the partial sale of a company called Uranium One in 2010.

“The president has pushed for transparency, if that’s what you’re referring to, when dealing with Congress,” she said. “I know that it’s probably something new for a president to actually push for transparency, but that’s what he’s done. And that was the purpose of what he was trying to do in that process.”

The Obama administration approved the sale of a controlling interest in Uranium One to a subsidiary of Russian energy giant Rosatom. The issue gained renewed attention this month when The Hill newspaper reported that at the time government agencies were reviewing the transaction, the FBI was investigating efforts to bribe decision-makers.

The Justice Department agreed this week to let the informant provide “any information or documents he has concerning alleged corruption or bribery involving transactions in the uranium market.”

Democrats contend the entire Uranium One probe is an effort to distract from Russia’s efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election, including possible coordination with the Trump campaign. But Sanders said the administration supports the uranium investigations.

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“We do think that there’s a lot of cause for concern regarding that deal, and we certainly think that it should be looked into,” she said.

McCarthy said that asking for a nondisclosure agreement to be lifted is hardly the same as trying to stop an investigation or order a criminal probe. He said if Congress truly wants to determine the scope and breadth of Russia’s activities, it seems reasonable to want to hear from a witness who might be able the shed light on that country’s goals related to uranium.

“What’s the harm of having more information?” he asked.

(photo credit, article image: Donald Trump at Aston PA…, CC BY 2.0, by Michael Vadon)