Speaking to Rep. Adam Schiff on The View on Tuesday, pundit Morgan Ortagus asked a question that Schiff likely wasn't expecting, about his role in backing the now-debunked Steele dossier that peddled the idea that former President Donald Trump was in league with Russia to steal the 2016 US presidential election.
"So I've asked you about something that's in the news a lot right now," Ortagus said. "You've been really prolific over the past few years being the head of the Intel Committee and you've defended, promoted, you even read into the Congressional Record, the Steele dossier. And we know last week, the main source of the dossier was indicted by the FBI for lying about most of the claims in that dossier. Do you have any reflections on your role in promoting this to the American people?"
"Well, first of all," Schiff replied, "whoever lied to the FBI or lied to Christopher Steele should be prosecuted. And they are. And unlike in the Trump administration, if they're convicted, they should go to jail, not be pardoned. So Donald Trump pardoned Roger Stone for lying he pardon Michael Flynn for lying. If people lie to the FBI, they should go to jail. But at the beginning of the Russia investigation, I said that any allegations should be investigated. We couldn't have known for example, people were lying to Christopher Steele, so it was proper to investigate them. And let's not forget what we learned in that investigation. We learned that the Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was giving internal polling data campaign polling data to Russian intelligence, while Russian intelligence was helping Trump to—"
"To be clear, " Ortagus said, "He was fired half way through the campaign."
"Well, he may have been fired," Schiff said, "but the effort to get Russian help continued, and even beyond the effort to get Russian help—"
"But you also spread misinformation yourself, for years, by promoting this," Ortagus said. "I think that's what Republicans, and what people who entrusted you as the Intel Committee Chair, are so confused about your culpability in all of this."
"Well," Schiff replied, "I completely disagree with your premise. It's one thing to say allegations should be investigated, and they were. It's another to say that we should have foreseen in advance that some people were lying to Christopher Steele, which is impossible, of course to do. But let's not use that as a smokescreen to somehow shield Donald Trump's culpability for inviting Russia to help him in the election, which they did for trying to coerce Ukraine into helping him in the next election, which he did, into inciting an erection insurrection, which he did. None of that is undercut none of that serious misconduct is in any way diminished by the fact that people lied to Christopher Steele."
"No, I think just your credibility is," Ortagus replied.
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