Schiff Scorches Intel Chair Nunes Over ‘Dead of Night Excursion’ and Latest Move to Bar Public From Investigation

• Attempt to ‘Choke Off Public Info’ 

• ‘Has Led Us Down This Terrible Rabbit Hole and Threatens the Only Investigation That Is Authorized in the House’

Minutes after Republican House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) concluded a hastily called press conference, Intel Vice Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) scorched him before the cameras. Nunes announced that prior-scheduled testimony slated for next week from FBI Director James Comey and Admiral Mike Rogers, Director of the National Security Agency, would be given behind closed doors, cutting out the public.

Nunes went on to announce that Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump’s campaign manager who worked for Trump for six months, had offered to testify before the House Intelligence Committee. That, too, would be held behind closed doors and not available to the public.

Schiff publicly blasted Chairman Nunes, saying, as CNN reports, he had just cancelled an open Intelligence Committee hearing with former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former CIA Director John Brennan and former deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, in an “attempt to choke off public info.”

Rep. Schiff blasted Nunes for his “dead of night excursion” earlier this week when he reviewed documents that led him to hold two press conferences and run to the White House – which is under counterintelligence investigation for possible collusion with the Russians, Schiff noted– to share his findings.

He called Nunes’ running to Trump an “effort to defend the indefensible” which “has led us down this terrible rabbit hole and threatens the only investigation that is authorized in the House.”

Schiff, himself a former federal prosecutor, called Nunes’ actions “wholly inappropriate” and “cast grave doubts” about his ability to chair an investigation.

While looking forward to Paul Manafort testifying before the Intelligence Committee, Schiff was angered that testimony would be blocked from the public.

“We welcome his testimony before the committee,” Schiff told reporters, urging “that testimony be done in open session, so the public may be informed of what he has to say.”

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