Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) has exclaimed that he never once took classified papers back to his home as the currently expanding scandal surrounding the handling of secret documents by high-ranking government executives.
As the current chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Schiff would have had access to a plethora of highly classified information, but the congressman claimed this past Tuesday that he was far too paranoid to allow himself to take any of it with him.
“This is what’s so astounding, I think, for all of us on the Intelligence Committee. I never take classified documents to my house,” stated Schiff to Andrea Mitchell with MSNBC, who asked if had taken any packets of the records home. “I don’t know any reason why people would.”
Schiff referred to a SCIF, which is known to be a very secure location in which highly sensitive documents and information can be viewed.
“I am so paranoid when I go into the SCIF and out of the SCIF to make sure I’ve got no electronics on the way in, that I’ve got nothing with me on the way out. I am very, very careful about it, and I would assume that everyone else is, but clearly there’s a problem here,” he explained.
The talks took place as it was being unveiled that over a dozen classified-level documents were discovered at the home of former Vice President Mike Pence out in Indiana before being quickly handed back over to the FBI. Officials with the Justice Department already appointed a pair of special counsels to look into both President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden about their handling of documents and classified materials which were stored in their residences and offices.
Schiff stated that there has been a real “systemic problem” with how White House officials are working with classified materials and sounded the horn for a risk assessment to be carried out by the intelligence community.
Over the course of the four years, since he secured his role as the chairman of the intelligence panel in 2019, Schiff has been marked as a highly controversial figure, mostly due to his public claims of there being “ample” evidence regarding ongoing collusion between Russia and Trump along with how he dealt with a number whistleblower allegations throughout the Ukraine impeachment saga.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) openly called out Schiff for being a repeat liar in vowing to remove Schiff from the Intelligence Committee this session of Congress, alongside Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA). Daring McCarthy to try and make good on his pledge, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) issued his formal recommendation that Swalwell and Schiff keep working on the Committee, calling them “eminently qualified.”
