Adam Schiff May Have Mischaracterized Evidence, Documents Show; Schiff Fumes at Trump Lawyers’ Allegations
By Politico. House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff appears to have mischaracterized a text message exchange between two players in the Ukraine saga, according to documents obtained by POLITICO — a possible error the GOP will likely criticize as another example of the Democrats’ rushed effort to impeach President Donald Trump.
The issue arose when Schiff (D-Calif.) sent a letter to House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) last week summarizing a trove of evidence from Lev Parnas, an indicted former associate of Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani. In one section of the letter, Schiff claims that Parnas “continued to try to arrange a meeting with President Zelensky,” citing a specific text message exchange where Parnas tells Giuliani: “trying to get us mr Z.” The remainder of the exchange — which was attached to Schiff’s letter — was redacted.
But an unredacted version of the exchange shows that several days later, Parnas sent Giuliani a word document that appears to show notes from an interview with Mykola Zlochevsky, the founder of Burisma, followed by a text message to Giuliani that states: “mr Z answers my brother.” That suggests Parnas was referring to Zlochevsky not Zelensky.
The word document contains a series of questions and answers, but doesn’t identify who is doing the asking or answering. Yet the questions center on the hiring practices at Burisma, while the responses include statements such as “we wanted to build Burisma as [an] international company” and “we also thought it would help in Ukraine to have strong international board figures,” which seems to point to Zlochevsky — not the Ukrainian president — as the respondent. (Read more from “Schiff May Have Mischaracterized Evidence, Documents Show” HERE)
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Schiff, on Floor at Senate Impeachment Trial, Quietly Fumes at Trump Lawyers’ Allegations
By Fox News. Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff stared down President Trump’s lawyers on the Senate floor Tuesday as they accused him of lying to the American people and denying Trump due process during the impeachment investigation.
Trump lawyers Pat Cipollone and Jay Sekulow repeatedly ripped into Democrats, especially Schiff, on the first day of arguments in the Senate impeachment trial, as the House Intelligence Committee chairman — who is serving as the top Democratic impeachment manager — sat up straight in his chair and didn’t take his eyes off his accusers.
The lawyers invoked Schiff’s name over and over again, accusing him of hiding documents, conducting an unfair impeachment inquiry and fabricating the text of the July 25 phone call between Trump and the president of Ukraine.
Just as Schiff sat down from making a lengthy opening case for new witnesses and documents, Sekulow took over and with a booming voice accused Schiff of telling falsehoods and “put[ting] words into transcripts that did not exist.”
Schiff kept his eyes wide open and glued on Sekulow, possibly aghast that Trump’s lawyers were putting him on trial. (Read more from “Schiff, on Floor at Senate Impeachment Trial, Quietly Fumes at Trump Lawyers’ Allegations” HERE)
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