Trump Claims Without Evidence Schiff Helped Write Complaint

(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump seized on revelations that the whistle-blower whose complaint sparked the Democrats’ impeachment inquiry spoke with the staff of House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, arguing the news invalidated complaints about his controversial behavior toward Ukraine.

In a heated White House news conference on Wednesday, Trump repeated his call for Schiff to resign and alleged without evidence that the California lawmaker had helped the unnamed intelligence official write the complaint.

Schiff’s office, however, downplayed the interaction, calling the consultation with the whistle-blower a “regular occurrence” and saying that at no point did the committee “review or receive the complaint in advance.”

The developments highlighted the unique political challenges for Democrats as they seek to both protect the whistle-blower and pursue their impeachment inquiry in the face of Republican efforts to tar both as a partisan charade.

“He knew long before and he helped write it, too,” Trump said of Schiff and the whistle-blower complaint. “It’s a scam. It’s a scam.”

Trump’s Agitation

The squabble underscored the president’s growing agitation at the probe into his request in a July phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskiy in which he asked the Ukrainian president to investigate Joe Biden.

Wednesday’s episode seems certain to intensify the spotlight on Schiff, who Republicans have already criticized for delivering a parody version of Trump’s phone call with Zelenskiy during a committee meeting following the release of White House records of the call. The president has repeatedly said his actions were treasonous.

“We don’t call him shifty Schiff for nothing,” Trump said. “He’s a shifty dishonest guy.”

The revelations may also accelerate demands from the White House and other Republicans to reveal the name of the whistle-blower. Trump has repeatedly requested that the name of the whistle-blower be released, as well as those within the White House who alerted him to the behavior chronicled in the complaint, saying he deserved the right to “confront” his accuser.

Those remarks, combined with Trump’s suggestion the whistle-blower had also committed treason, have prompted concern among some lawmakers that the administration is trying to stifle the investigation.

Democrats’ Response

Democrats on Wednesday quickly denied Trump’s charges that Schiff helped write the whistle-blower’s complaint, saying committee staff simply advised the person to contact the inspector general and seek personal legal counsel.

“The whistle-blower should be commended for acting appropriately and lawfully throughout every step of the process,” Schiff spokesman Patrick Boland said in a statement.

Mark Zaid, an attorney for the whistle-blower, said proper laws and processes had been followed.

“I can unequivocally state that neither any member of the legal team nor the whistle-blower has ever met or spoken with Congressman Schiff about this matter,” Zaid said.

The committee staffer who spoke with the whistle-blower did not reveal his or her identity to Schiff but did share elements of the complaint, the New York Times reported, helping to explain why Schiff knew to press the Trump administration to release details from the whistle-blower report.

The White House so far has not denied specific elements of the whistle-blower complaint, with Trump instead complaining that it unfairly portrays his request for an investigation into his political rivals in a sinister light because of partisan motivations.

But Trump wasn’t the only Republican lawmaker suggesting evidence of a conspiracy.

“Adam Schiff has had it out for our president,” tweeted Steven Palazzo, a Republican congressman from Mississippi. “He has orchestrated this from the beginning.”

Other lawmakers, including Representative Paul Gosar, an Arizona Republican, suggested Schiff was “lying” when he said in a MSNBC interview that “we have not spoken directly with the whistle-blower.”

Packet of Material

Separately, the State Department’s inspector general briefed lawmakers and shared a packet of material allegedly containing notes from interviews that took place at Rudy Giuliani’s New York office involving debunked conspiracies related to Ukraine, according to a person familiar with the meeting. Giuliani is Trump’s personal lawyer.

The White House purportedly sent the package to Secretary of State Michael Pompeo’s office, according to the person who asked not to be identified discussing the closed-door briefing on Wednesday.

Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin said the origin of the documents wasn’t clear. Also unclear is whether the documents shared with lawmakers by State Department Inspector General Steve Linick were relevant to the House impeachment inquiry, Raskin said.

On Thursday, the former U.S. special envoy for Ukraine, Kurt Volker, who was named in the whistle-blower complaint and resigned last Friday, is expected to be interviewed by congressional committees.

Other officials named in the complaint are also expected to be interviewed in the coming weeks, including Deputy Assistant Secretary of State George Kent, who has overseen Ukraine policy for just over a year.

The committee has also requested documents from Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and asked to interview a number of his associates.

--With assistance from Steven T. Dennis, Jordan Fabian and Billy House.

To contact the reporter on this story: Justin Sink in Washington at jsink1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, Joshua Gallu, Justin Blum

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.