A Democrat whistleblower has taken the lid off what he calls ‘treasonous’ leaks of classified information by now-California Senator Adam Schiff to target Donald Trump.
Schiff, who was trashed in the 2023 Durham Report as attempting to strongarm researchers into criticizing Trump, could even face an investigation as the findings have been turned over by the FBI to Congress.
The leaks allegedly approved by Schiff came early in Trump’s first term in 2017 during the ‘Russiagate’ scandal, which has since been debunked.
At the time, Schiff was still in the House of Representatives and the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee.
The whistleblower alleges he tried to move FBI agents as early as 2017 and at the St. Louis office as late as 2023, when he alleged he personally saw Schiff authorize leaks of anti-Trump classified information.
A semi-redacted report from the interview claims: ‘[Staffer] was called to an all-staff meeting by SCHIFF. In this meeting, SCHIFF stated the group would leak classified information which was derogatory to President of the United States DONALD J. TRUMP. SCHIFF stated the information would be used to indict President TRUMP.’
‘[Staffer] stated this would be illegal and, upon hearing his concerns, unnamed members of the meeting reassured that they would not be caught leaking classified information.’
A career intelligence officer and Democrat who said he was close to both Schiff and ex-Republican House Intelligence Chair Devin Nunes, the staffer told the FBI that Schiff acted ‘illegally.’
However, he allegedly was told he shouldn’t be worried for Schiff because he would be protected by the Constitution’s speech and debate clause, Just the News reported.
The Daily Mail has reached out to Senator Schiff for comment.
FBI Director Kash Patel claims the declassification of these reports marks a new day for the bureau.
‘We found it. We declassified it. Now Congress can see how classified info was leaked to shape political narratives – and decide if our institutions were weaponized against the American people,’ he tweeted Monday.
‘For years, certain officials used their positions to selectively leak classified information to shape political narratives,’ Patel further argued to Just the News.
‘It was all done with one purpose: to weaponize intelligence and law enforcement for political gain.
‘Those abuses eroded public trust in our institutions,’ he added.
‘The FBI will now lead the charge, with our partners at DOJ, and Congress will have the chance to uncover how political power may have been weaponized and to restore accountability,’ he said.
In 2023, it was revealed in the Durham Report that Schiff met with a university researcher who met with Schiff’s staff felt threatened by the request to provide analysis of a news article about the Trump Organization and Russia-owned Alfa Bank.
It was a topic that the FBI would probe – whether there was a ‘secret’ server for Trump Organization communication with Moscow that didn’t pan out.
The meeting took place in a secure room of the House Intelligence Committee, which Schiff would chair. Staff for Schiff and Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) asked a pair of university researchers they had brought in to review a newspaper article about the alleged link.
‘University-I Researcher-3 said he responded by saying that it would be inappropriate for a public university to do that,’ and suggested they contact a government research entity.
‘Reed Staffer-2 then said, “We are now in charge,” and one of the HPSCI staffers said that their boss (Congressman Adam Schiff) would soon take over leadership of [the Intel committee]. University-I Researcher-3 took the comment as a mild threat,’ according to the report.
At that point, the researcher then ‘dragged’ the other researcher out of the meeting.
‘University-! Researcher-3 told investigators that he told University-! Researcher-2, “Don’t touch this with a ten foot pole, stay away from this,”‘ according to the report.
As for the Alfa Bank connection and the secret server – the FBI’s investigation ‘ultimately concluded that it was unable to substantiate any of the allegations in the white paper that [Clinton lawyer Michael Sussman]’ provided,’ according to the report. (Sussman was found not guilty of lying to investigators).
Special counsel Durham noted at a Congressional hearing months later that Adam Schiff has experience in accepting ‘dirt’ on political opponents from foreign agents as the California Democrat pressed him on the 2016 meeting between Trump acolytes and Russian agents claiming to have damaging information on Hillary Clinton.
In 2016 a meeting took place between Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort and Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya – with at least Trump. Jr. expecting to receive ‘very high-level and sensitive information’ that would be incriminating to Hillary Clinton in the meeting.
‘People get phone calls all the time from individuals who claim to have information like that,’ Durham said of the contact.
Schiff pressed: ‘This son of a presidential candidate gets calls all the time from a foreign government offering dirt on their important opponent. Is that what you’re saying?’
To which Durham quipped: ‘I don’t think this situation is unique in your experience.’
Schiff, the former top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, was one of Trump’s most outspoken critics and spent years trying to prove collusions between him and Russia.
In 2018 DailyMail.com revealed that Schiff had been spoofed by Russian comedians posing as Ukrainian officials offering him ‘compromising’ dirt on Trump – including nude photos.
On an audio recording of the prank call posted online, Adam Schiff can be heard discussing the committee’s Russia investigation and increasingly bizarre allegations about Trump with a man who claimed to be Andriy Parubiy, the chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament.
The call had actually come from two Russian comedians nicknamed ‘Vovan’ and ‘Lexus’ who have become notorious for their phony calls to high-ranking American officials and celebrities, including UN Ambassador Nikki Haley and Elton John.
Schiff’s office said the congressman suspected the call was ‘bogus’ from the beginning and reported it to authorities afterward.
But in a recording of the eight-minute conversation, Schiff appeared to take the call seriously – or at least played along convincingly – and emails from the Democrat’s staff to the fake politician afterwards said he had found it ‘productive’.
Schiff asked Durham if he was trying to ‘diminish’ the significance of the meeting between Trump campaign affiliates and Russian operatives.
‘You think it’s insignificant that he had a secret meeting with the Russian delegation for the purpose of getting dirt on Hillary Clinton? And the only disappointment expressed in the meeting was that the dirt they got wasn’t better. You don’t think that’s significant?’
‘I don’t think that that was a well-advised thing to do,’ Durham said. ‘If you’re asking me what I do and I hope I wouldn’t do it, but it was not illegal, was it? It was stupid, foolish, ill advised.’
Congressional Republicans were later voted down in an attempt to censure Schiff for ‘lying’ to the FBI.
Schiff claimed the move was ‘to distract from Trump’s indictment and retaliate against me for impeaching him.’
‘I’m not backing down,’ he wrote on Twitter. ‘This isn’t going to stop me from standing up for our democracy.’
A year later, he was elected to the Senate by the state of California on the same night Trump took back the White House, setting the rivals on yet another collision course.
The FBI has come under attack since the investigation into allegations of collusions between the Trump campaign and Russia, Operation Crossfire, for the raid on Mar-a-Lago and for allegations the agency slow-walked an investigation into Hunter Biden.
The investigation by Durham has since debunked any evidence of collusion between Trump and Russia in the election.
Durham’s task, according to an order by then-attorney general Barr, was to look into the origins of Crossfire Hurricane, which was launched in July 2016, as well as special counsel Robert Mueller’s subsequent investigation initiated in May 2017.
But the special counsel said senior FBI personnel showed ‘a serious lack of analytical rigor’ and a ‘significant reliance on investigative leads provided or funded (directly or indirectly) by Trump’s political opponents.’
The former commander-in-chief has repeatedly clashed with the top Democrat, branding him ‘Shifty Schiff’ over his repeated allegations that he was in cahoots with Vladimir Putin.
Kevin McCarthy, the speaker of the House, removed Schiff from his post as intelligence chair soon as he took up his new role.