Rep. Adam Schiff Calls For Investigation Of Trump DOJ

Rep. Adam Schiff, chair of the House Intelligence Committee, called for an investigation of former President Donald Trump’s Justice Department on Thursday after a report said his phone records had been seized. Schiff called the action a “terrible abuse of power.”

During an appearance on MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show, Schiff said: “It also makes the Department of Justice just a fully owned subsidiary of the president’s personal legal interests and political interests.”

The Trump Department of Justice subpoenaed Apple in order to retrieve communications data for two Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee.

Schiff added that Attorney General Merrick Garland should be questioned as well: “I think that the attorney general has an obligation to clean house, to essentially understand exactly what the department was doing over the last four years – make sure there’s accountability for those that were engaged in political and partisan investigations within the department.”

Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-California) said on Thursday that he was the other Democrat whose records were seized. Swalwell said that he was notified by Apple.

“We have seen this through the Justice Department by Donald Trump, whether it was the reason he was impeached, for trying to go after Vice President Biden at the time, or just other efforts, you know, through the Mueller investigation,” Swalwell said. “And I support Chairman Schiff’s call for an inspector general report into not only this conduct but other conduct that was corrupt by Donald Trump and those who worked for him.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has spoken out in support of Schiff’s call for an investigation. “These actions appear to be yet another egregious assault on our democracy waged by the former president,” Pelosi said. “I support Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff’s call for an investigation into this situation and other acts of the weaponization of law enforcement by the former president. Transparency is essential.”

Schiff added: “We’re obviously deeply suspicious of what the Justice Department was doing. More than that, this looks like a patent abuse of the department. Yet another example of the president politicizing, using the Department of Justice as a cudgel to go after his enemies. He would repeatedly attack our committee, attack me personally, call for investigations of our committee while we were doing an investigation of him. And apparently, those pleas were met with a receptive audience at the very top level of the Justice Department.”

Article by Elizabeth Letsou