Global Courant 2023-05-20 02:00:45
Posts shared thousands of times on social media platforms state that US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has called for the “immediate removal and possible prosecution” of Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff. This is wrong; misinterpret the claims the The Republican leader’s comments, which criticized Schiff for alleging that former President Donald Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 campaign.
“BREAKING: House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has called for the immediate removal and possible prosecution of Rep. Adam Schiff for committing crimes of treason against the United States,” says a May 17, 2023 message tweet of an account called ‘Leading Report’.
The post accumulated tens of thousands of interactions. Similar claims circulated elsewhere on Twitter, Facebook And Instagramas well as in it Article from websites that have previously published incorrect information.
Screenshot of Twitter taken on May 19, 2023
The messages refer to something McCarthy said about Schiff, a California Democrat, on May 16. press conference on the federal budget negotiations. But McCarthy did not explicitly call for Schiff’s impeachment or prosecution treason.
Here are the speaker’s comments to reporters at the Capitol, in context:
Reporter: “Mr. Speaker, you promised that if the GOP gets a majority in the House, you would investigate the findings of the Durham inquiry. What does the accountability look like now that the report has been released?” McCarthy: “Well, a couple of things. We’re asking Durham to come in and testify so we can look into it more.” It really raises the question about Adam Schiff. Remember when he told the American people he had proof? Remember when he told them he didn’t know the whistleblower — and what he did to America and openly lied to us and is now proven to be true? It raises a lot of questions about his character, his position in Congress, and whether he should be in Congress.”
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The Durham Inquiry
McCarthy’s criticism of Schiff stems from the latter lawmaker’s comments about Trump’s alleged connections to Russia.
Schiff was the leading member of the House Intelligence Committee and later chairman during the Trump administration. He was the lead manager of the former president’s first impeachment trial.
The Democrat has repeatedly supposedly The Trump campaign colluded with the Russians during the 2016 election.
“I’ve been very clear over the last year, a year and a half that there’s plenty of evidence of collusion in plain sight,” Schiff said. said on ABC’s “This Week” in April 2019. “And I use that word very carefully because I also distinguish again and again between collusion, meaning acts of corruption that may or may not be criminal, and evidence of a criminal conspiracy.”
He added: “Every act I pointed out as evidence of conspiracy is now confirmed by the report.”
The congressman’s comments came after former special counsel Robert Mueller issued are report about Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. The investigation found no evidence of a criminal conspiracy, although Mueller pushed back to Trump’s claims of exoneration by pointing out that the study did not evaluate “collusion,” which is not a legal term.
In May 2019, then-Attorney General William Barr appointed Special counsel John Durham is addressing allegations that the Russia investigation was a political “witch hunt,” as Trump claimed. The investigation looked specifically at “Crossfire Hurricane,” the FBI’s question in claims of collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign.
In over 300 pages report (archived here) released on May 15, 2023, Durham said the FBI investigation was seriously flawed.
“Neither U.S. law enforcement nor the intelligence community appears to have had actual evidence of conspiracy in their possession at the time the Crossfire Hurricane investigation began,” the report said.
Democrats have turned down the research.
“The Durham investigation was flawed from the start,” Schiff said in a May 16 message tweet. “It started with a political goal – to please Trump. It resulted in two spectacular failures in the process. And ended with nothing to see after four years of effort.”
Eviction proposal
Anna Paulina Luna, a Republican Congresswoman from Florida State, archived a May 17 resolution to remove Schiff from Congress for his promotion of allegations that Trump colluded with Russia in 2016.
“The Durham report makes it clear that the Russian collusion was a lie from day one and that Schiff knowingly used his position in an attempt to divide our country,” Luna said in a statement.
But from May 19, the account (archived here) had no co-sponsors and was not put to the vote. The Constitution determines two-thirds of the House must support such action, and they did only happened five times in the history of the legislative body – most recently in 2002.
Schiff responded to Luna’s proposal by saying he “won’t back down”.
“When this chapter is written, it will record: When Republicans didn’t have the courage to stand up to the most unethical president in history, they consoled themselves by attacking those who did,” he said in a message dated May 18. tweet.
AFP found no evidence that McCarthy explicitly advocated removing Schiff from Congress or charging him with treason. When asked about Luna’s resolution on May 18, McCarthy replied told Politico he should ‘look into it’.
AFP contacted the speaker’s office for additional comment, as no response was forthcoming.
AFP previously debunked claims that Schiff had been arrested for treason here.
