Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA) seems confident that congress already has direct evidence of collusion by President Trump and Russian interests, wants to further probes into money laundering, Moscow Trump Tower, and whether or not the president was compromised by the above.
The discussion focused initially on former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen and his statement that he had no seen any direct evidence, backing up similar claims by Richard Burr (R-NC), the chair of the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
“I think there is direct evidence in the emails from the Russians through their intermediary offering dirt on Hillary Clinton as part of what is described in writing as the Russian government effort to help elect Donald Trump,” said Schiff. “They offer that dirt. There is an acceptance of that offer in writing form the president’s son, Don Jr., and there is overt acts and furtherance of that. That is, the meeting at Trump Tower, and all the lies to cover up that meeting at Trump Tower — and apparently lies the president participated in.”
“That to me is direct evidence,” Schiff added, “But there’s also abundant circumstantial evidence.”
“There is, for example, evidence of [Paul] Manafort sharing internal polling data with someone linked to the Russian intelligence service, concluded Schiff. “Why do that? What legitimate purpose is there to that?”
Schiff wasn’t willing to put impeachment on the table, however.
“Here’s the thing, and I’ve made this distinction all along, that while there’s abundant evidence of collusion, the issue from a criminal point of view is whether there is proof beyond a reasonable doubt of a criminal conspiracy,” said Schiff.
“That is something will have to await Bob Mueller’s report and the underlying evidence to determine,” said Schiff. “We’ll also have to look at the whole body of improper and criminal actions by the President, including those campaign finance crimes, in order to determine if they rise to the level of removal from office.”
View the full exchange below:
Image via screen capture from video source.