Top Dem. Schiff Tells Mueller That 'Time and Patience Are Running Out'
Democrat Rep. Adam Schiff of California, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said Wednesday he doesn’t think special counsel Robert Mueller’s 10-minute statement to the news media on his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election answered enough questions.
During an event at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., Schiff said Mueller must testify before Congress.
“In terms of Bob Mueller, he is going to have to testify. And, he can testify voluntarily, or he can testify under subpoena, but it is going to have to happen,” Schiff said, according to Reuters.
“I don’t think a two-year investigation of this magnitude, followed by a written report and a 10-minute statement without questions, satisfactorily answers the many, many questions we have about the investigation,” Schiff said.
“Time and patience are running out on that front,” he added.
Schiff also had harsh words for President Donald Trump, who suggested to ABC News in an interview this month that he might accept intelligence on a political opponent offered to his campaign by a foreign power.
Trump’s comments told Russia that the country is “free to intervene in the next election as long as they intervene on the president’s side, and he will not have the guts to call them out on it,” Schiff said.
“He may even be grateful,” Schiff said of Trump.
Schiff’s call for Mueller to testify came after Mueller declined to charge the president with any criminal wrongdoing.
Mueller did not find sufficient evidence to show Trump committed any crimes related to either collusion or alleged obstruction of justice.
Still, some Democrats have called for Trump to be impeached.
Last week, meanwhile, Schiff suggested Russia may try to damage 2020 presidential candidates using altered videos, known as “deepfakes.”
This sort of technology has “the capacity to disrupt entire campaigns, including that for the presidency,” he said, ABC News reported. Schiff added that he believes new federal regulations to stop the use of deepfakes would be “worthy of serious consideration.”
Schiff echoed those concerns on Wednesday.
“We speed toward the 2020 elections in an environment in which there are new technologies like deepfakes that are potentially hugely disruptive, and even less attributable than a hacking and dumping operation, and we are not nearly as prepared as we should be,” Schiff said.
North Korea or U.S. citizens might adopt those same tactics, Schiff said, in order to interfere with the election.
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