Schiff pressing hard to reschedule Yates testimony ‘soon’
The ranking Democrat on the House intelligence committee says the Republican chairman’s justification for abruptly canceling a scheduled hearing for former acting Attorney General Sally Yates “frankly didn’t add up” — and is hoping to reschedule her testimony “soon.”
“It’s time to put that hearing back on track,” Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., told Yahoo Global News Anchor Katie Couric on Tuesday. “If we take the White House at its word, it wants Sally Yates to testify now. So let’s reschedule that hearing.”
Devin Nunes, R-Calif., the embattled chairman of the House intelligence committee, canceled the public hearing on Friday.
Earlier Tuesday, the Washington Post reported that Yates had sought permission from the White House to speak, but was told much of her testimony would be barred “because the topics are covered by the presidential communication privilege.”
The White House called the report “entirely false.”
“I hope she testifies,” White House press secretary Sean Spicer said at his daily briefing on Tuesday. “I look forward to it.”
Meanwhile, Schiff has called for Nunes to recuse himself from the committee’s investigation into Russian interference in last year’s election, following the revelation that he had gone to the White House grounds to receive classified information related to the probe from an unnamed source.
On Monday night, Yahoo News’ Michael Isikoff reported that speculation about the identity of the source was focusing on Michael Ellis, a lawyer who worked for Nunes on the intelligence committee and now works on national security matters at the White House.
Related: Russia probe in turmoil as top Dem calls for Nunes’ recusal
“I don’t know if that’s true or not — we certainly should get to the bottom of it,” Schiff said. “But the circumstances are highly questionable.”
Schiff laid out the timeline of events that led up to Nunes’ mystery meeting.
“We had a hearing on Monday, the first open hearing in which the directors of the FBI and NSA roundly repudiated the president’s claim that he was wiretapped by his predecessor,” Schiff said. “Then there is this urgent clandestine meeting between the chairman and someone on the White House grounds. We don’t know who — it’s not just the Democrats on the committee, the Republicans don’t know who he met with either.”
Before sharing the information with the rest of the intelligence committee, Nunes presented it to the White House.
“The whole sequence of events looks very odd to put it in the most diplomatic terms,” Schiff said.
Schiff reiterated his call for Nunes to recuse himself from the investigation, and for the establishment of a “fully independent commission” to investigate Moscow’s election meddling — one that is “wholly immune from any kind of political influence.”
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