A piece of propaganda

Schiff: Trump’s spy theory ’a piece of propaganda’

By CONNOR O’BRIEN

The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee on Sunday dismissed claims by President Donald Trump that an FBI informant was used to undermine his presidential campaign.

"There is no evidence to support that spy theory," Rep. Adam Schiff of California said on ABC's "This Week." "This is just ... a piece of propaganda the president wants to put out and repeat. And certainly we've seen this pattern before."

Trump has decried what he calls "Spygate," after revelations that an informant made contact with his campaign as part of an FBI probe into Russian influence in the election. The president has slammed the Justice Department and special counsel Robert Mueller, calling the ongoing investigation an attempt to undermine the validity of his election.

Schiff slammed the administration's rhetoric and dinged congressional Republicans for being "complicit" in undermining the Justice Department. He noted the appearance of White House lawyer Emmet Flood and chief of staff John Kelly at the start of a briefing he attended last week on the FBI's investigation.

"They came at the beginning, I think, to send a message from the president that the president expected the Justice Department, essentially, to give these allies of the president's, these aider and abettors of the president ... what they wanted," Schiff said.

"Now, the only thing that makes this possible is a Congress that is complicit, is members of Congress ... and a weak speaker that will not stand up for the independence of the Justice Department," Schiff said, knocking Republican Paul Ryan and his caucus. "And that means that the rule of law is now on shaky ground."

Schiff contended that the House needs to change hands in the upcoming midterm elections for there to be a true check on the Trump administration.

"The broad question is how do you counter a president who repeats falsehood after falsehood after falsehood, that has the bully pulpit of the presidency to do it, and has allies in Congress who are willing to support that," Schiff said.

"At the end of the day, there's only one remedy for that, and that is you need to throw the bums out," he said. "As long as there's a majority in Congress that is willing to do this president's will and as long as we have a deeply unethical president, there's only one remedy. And that is to change the Congress and to let the investigation go on."