Adam Schiff defended his claim of Russian collusion in the 2016 election on Jake Tapper’s “State of the Union” Sunday. “There is evidence of collusion. The Trump campaign manager was meeting with Russian intelligence and giving them internal polling data, just to give you one example. And the Mueller report sets all this out,” he explained.
The topic was broached by Tapper, who asked if Schiff if he felt any of his claims were an overstatement. Schiff said no, to which Tapper replied, “It does say, ‘The investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities,’ which doesn’t mean that he didn’t, that there weren’t meetings, but they didn’t find evidence of it.”
“Mueller says that, too,” Schiff answered. “He says, ‘The fact that we didn’t find proof beyond a reasonable doubt doesn’t mean there wasn’t evidence of conspiracy or coordination.’”
Schiff was censured by House Republicans in 2023 over the claims. The act caused a fracas in the House at the time, with Democrats clapping and cheering for the defiant Schiff as they called out, “No!,” Shame!” and “Adam! Adam!”
Schiff’s claim had a basis in the Steele dossier, which was also known as the Trump-Russia dossier. The document was published in January 2017 without permission and in its unfinished form, and was based on information from counterintelligence specialist Christopher Steele, former M16 officer, and Igor Danchenko, an FBI informant.
In 2021, CNN reported “the credibility of the document” had “significantly diminished.” The news broadcaster also reported, “A series of investigations and lawsuits have discredited many of its central allegations and exposed the unreliability of Steele’s sources.”
“They also raise serious questions about the political underpinnings of some key explosive claims about Trump by shedding new light on the involvement of some well-connected Democrats in the dossier, and separate efforts to prod the FBI to investigate ties between Trump’s campaign and Russia.”
