Schiff: Nunes ‘doing the work of the White House’

The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday evening blasted the panel’s chairman, Rep. Devin Nunes, accusing the California Republican of “doing the work of the White House.”

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) went after Nunes and a group of House Republicans on MSNBC over a report earlier this week that revealed a number of GOP lawmakers have been meeting for weeks to investigate the FBI’s handling of a dossier containing unverified claims about President Trump’s ties to Russia.

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“It’s more of the same problem we saw early in the investigation, when the chairman had difficulty removing himself from his role during the campaign of being a proxy for the White House,” Schiff said.

Nunes recused himself from the Intelligence panel’s Russia probe earlier this year over his contacts with the White House.

Schiff tore into Nunes and other GOP lawmakers on Thursday, saying Republicans were wrong to cast doubt on the integrity of special counsel Robert Mueller and his team of investigators looking into Trump campaign associates’ ties to Russia.

“And here I think, again, we are seeing some on our committee, including the chair, doing the work of the White House, doing the work of Steve Bannon,” Schiff continued, referring to Trump’s former White House chief strategist.

Schiff said members of the Intel panel are “supposed to be investigating Russia, as well as the connections between Russia’s active measures campaign and Trump officials.”

The California Democrat slammed Republicans on Wednesday after Politico reported that GOP lawmakers had been meeting for “weeks” to determine whether the FBI handled the dossier claims improperly. In a statement, Schiff condemned the lawmakers for inflicting “long-term damage” on the nation’s law enforcement bodies.