Schiff doesn't know if he would obey a GOP subpoena to testify

AP Photo/Amanda Andrade-Rhoades

How many times have we been lectured by Adam Schiff during his endless appearances on CNN and MSNBC about the “obstructionist” Republicans and various Trump associates who failed to cooperate with the J6 committee hearings? We already know how seriously Congressman Schiff takes such matters because Steve Bannon is currently facing a serious stretch behind bars for refusing to appear after he was sent a summons. But now that the GOP is preparing to take charge in the House and begin some investigations of their own, how will Adam Schiff respond if he is the subject of a subpoena? Based on an answer that he gave to Dana Bash yesterday, we’ll have to wait to find out. You see, the subpoena will have to meet his personal standard of credibility to avoid having him simply ignore it. (Conservative Brief)

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Democrats pushed to have Steve Bannon prosecuted for not complying with a Congressional subpoena, but now it is Democrat Rep. Adam Schiff who is not willing to guarantee that he would comply if Republicans subpoena him.

He appeared on the CNN show “State of the Union” on Sunday when host Dana Bash mentioned the topic of Congressional investigations.

“The incoming oversight chair, James Comer, told Punchbowl News in an interview, ‘I don’t believe congressional investigations have a whole lot of credibility now. I blame Adam Schiff for that, but it’s also both parties to blame for investigations in the past. I want to change that.’ What’s your response?” she said.

My apologies for the cliffhanger in the excerpt, but Schiff’s tirade was really a classic moment of political finger-pointing and obfuscating in the history of cable news. He first tees off on James Comer, accusing him of “not taking seriously” a number of investigations handled by the Democrats. He lists investigations involving Russia, Ukraine, and, of course, January 6th. He then lumps them all together as investigations into the “serial abuse of power by Donald Trump.”

That’s when Bash tosses out her closing question and asks Schiff what he will do if he himself is subpoenaed. He responds by saying he would need to “consider the validity of the subpoena.” He makes a few vague references about respecting the need to “follow the law,” while implying that others have not. But he wraps it up by declaring that he would need to “look at the legitimacy or lack of legitimacy of what they do.”

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So what Schiff is basically doing here is declaring that he will be the final judge of whether any investigations in the House chaired by Republicans is “legitimate” enough for him to comply with a subpoena. Surely it’s crossed his mind that Steve Bannon might have had some questions about the “legitimacy” of a subpoena to appear before a committee investigating a riot that he didn’t even attend. Or perhaps that his communications with the President were privileged.

So how is Schiff somehow immune to the power of the subpoena that landed Banon in front of a judge? You can rest assured that even if he does ignore a subpoena, nobody in the Biden Justice Department will be coming after him. This is just more of the same nonsense we’ve been hearing from these people for well over a year now. Allies of Joe Biden and supporters of the liberal agenda can ignore or even break the law without fear of reprisal. But anyone perceived as one of Biden’s critics or political opponents must be hunted down and brought to heel. Don’t get your hopes up for any sort of equal justice under the law until the Democrats are removed from the leadership in both chambers and the White House. And even then you might not see it, but instead just a reversal with the shoe being on the other foot. (Which would be just as bad, frankly.)

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Ed Morrissey 12:40 PM | November 21, 2024
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