https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/john-ratcliffe-adam-schiff-is-russias-best-asset-in-sowing-election-discordJohn Ratcliffe: Adam Schiff is Russia's best asset in sowing election discord
by Jerry Dunleavy
| February 23, 2020 08:19 PM
No one has played into the Kremlin’s hands more than Democratic House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, according to a key Republican congressman.
Rep. John Ratcliffe, a former federal prosecutor and member of the intelligence panel, addressed disputed leaks about classified intelligence on Russian inference in the 2020 election.
“He's at it again by putting out, through his committee, information that is false,” the Texas lawmaker told Maria Bartiromo on Fox News's Sunday Morning Futures. “Look, I'm not trying to be hyperbolic here, but I don't know anyone in the last three years who has done more to help Vladimir Putin and Russia with their efforts to sow the seeds of discord in American elections and American election security than Adam Schiff has.”
The controversial classified briefing happened earlier this month and was conducted by Shelby Pierson, the intelligence community election threats executive under then-Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire. During the meeting, sources cited by the New York Times on Thursday claimed Pierson warned that “Russia was interfering in the 2020 campaign to try to get President Trump reelected.”
Ratcliffe said he could not provide specifics about “a classified briefing that was intended to remain secret,” but he did deny the accuracy of the reporting.
“We see when there's a story about — that is allegedly anti-Trump or negative for the president, it shows up in newspapers because either Democratic members or Democratic staffers leak it,” the Texas Republican said Sunday. “The problem is, in this case, they have leaked information that's not accurate.”
His comments echo denials made by a national security official cited by CNN’s Jake Tapper on Friday.
“What's been articulated in the news is that the intelligence community has concluded that the Russians are trying to help Trump again. But the intelligence doesn't say that,” Tapper’s source said. “The problem is Shelby said they developed a preference for Trump. A more reasonable interpretation of the intelligence is not that they have a preference; it's a step short of that.” The national security official added, “It's more that they understand the president is someone they can work with; he's a dealmaker. But not that they prefer him over” his Democratic opponents.
“So it may have been mischaracterized by Shelby,” the official said.
CNN reported Sunday that “one intelligence official said that Pierson's characterization of the intelligence was ‘misleading’ and a national security official said Pierson failed to provide the ‘nuance’ needed to accurately convey the U.S. intelligence conclusions.”
The Washington Post cited a source Thursday who claimed the briefing “was the catalyst” that led Trump to replace Maguire with U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell last week. But national security adviser Robert O’Brien said Trump did not make the personnel switch because of the briefing.
Still, Schiff seemed to embrace the hotly-disputed framing of the reports. When the New York Times published its story Thursday, Schiff tweeted in response: “We count on the intelligence community to inform Congress of any threat of foreign interference in our elections. If reports are true and the President is interfering with that, he is again jeopardizing our efforts to stop foreign meddling.”
On Sunday, Trump disputed the claim that the U.S. Intelligence Community concluded Russia wanted him to win reelection in 2020.
“Nobody said it to me at all. Nobody briefed me about that all,” Trump said. “They leaked it, Adam Schiff and his group. They leaked it to the papers. And as usual, they ought to investigate Adam Schiff for leaking that information.”
Schiff called the comment a “nice deflection.”
“Your false claims fool no one,” the California Democrat tweeted. “You welcomed Russian help in 2016, tried to coerce Ukraine’s help in 2019, and won’t protect our elections in 2020. Now you fired your intel chief for briefing Congress about it. You’ve betrayed America. Again.”
CBS News's Catherine Herridge tweeted Friday her source “said briefers had none to offer” when pressed for details about whether there was signals intelligence, such as phone intercepts, to back up claims about Russia’s 2020 preference.
“I haven't seen any intelligence that Russia is doing anything to attempt to get President Trump reelected,” O’Brien said Sunday.
Ratcliffe, who was briefly Trump's nominee for director of national intelligence last year, said on Sunday the Russians “meddled in 2016” and “they're going to meddle in 2020.”
“That's not the issue: The issue is why Russia is being so successful in shaking American confidence in the integrity of our elections,” Ratcliffe argued. “And the reason is, it's because Democrats keep perpetuating and accentuating and proliferating Russian propaganda for their political gain and for their political motivation against Donald Trump.”
The congressman pointed to British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s dossier being used in Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants to target Trump campaign associate Carter Page, as well as Schiff’s 2018 FISA memo, which defended the Page FISA process.
DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz identified at least 17 “ significant errors or omissions” in the DOJ’s and the FBI’s use of FISA warrants in the Trump-Russia investigation. Schiff’s critics believe Horowitz’s FISA report demonstrated that Republican California Rep. Devin Nunes’s own 2018 FISA memo was almost entirely correct.
“All of these things have been done by Democrats for their political gain, but has promoted everything that Russia has tried to accomplish,” Ratcliffe claimed. “And the Democrats have been their biggest allies.”
Schiff said in December 2017 that there was “pretty damning” evidence of Trump-Russia collusion. And after special counsel Robert Mueller’s report was released in April, Schiff claimed there was “ample evidence of collusion in plain sight.”
Mueller’s report stated, “The investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.”
FBI Director Christopher Wray testified earlier this month that Russia’s “efforts to sow discord on both sides of an issue” is “very much ongoing.”
Fiona Hill, the National Security Council’s former Russia expert and a Ukraine impeachment witness, testified last year that the Russians “seed misinformation” and “seed doubt.”
