House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., faces ethics and legal hurdles for obtaining and exposing phone records of political enemies, knowledgeable observers say.
Schiff may have violated the same rule he used to threaten House Republicans, said Tom Anderson, director of the Government Integrity Project at the National Legal and Policy Center, a watchdog group.
Schiff warned Republicans on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence not to reveal the name of the whistleblower who first filed a complaint about President Donald Trump’s now-famous July 25 phone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“Schiff warned Republicans members if they did anything to publicize the whistleblower, it would be a violation of House ethics rules,” Anderson told The Daily Signal.
“He didn’t want other members to expose private information of the whistleblower,” Anderson said of Schiff, “but he is doing the same thing to people who don’t have anything to do with the impeachment process.”
The House Intelligence Committee, chaired by Schiff, has been the main player in Democrats’ impeachment inquiry targeting Trump.
Anderson referred to a provision of House rules against actions to “cast discredit or dishonor on the House, the committee, or a Member, Delegate, or Resident Commissioner or bring the House, the committee, or a Member, Delegate, or Resident Commissioner into disrepute.”
Information released by Schiff included the communications Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., the ranking member of the Intelligence Committee.
Phone records included in the committee’s report show that Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, was in contact with associate Lev Parnas, who was recently indicted for a campaign finance violation.
The records also show that Giuliani was in contact with Nunes and Washington journalist John Solomon, formerly of The Hill, and that Nunes also talked to Parnas.
According to the Schiff report, Giuliani also contacted the White House Situation Room and the Office of Management and Budget.
While obtaining information about a journalist likely would not be subject to an ethics complaint, significant concerns have been raised about Schiff’s releasing the information on Solomon, who long has covered Democrats’ efforts to cripple or remove Trump.
The House rule applies only to attacks on fellow House members.
However, release of records regarding figures not targeted in the investigation does demonstrate Schiff’s antipathy toward political rivals and sets an alarming...
