Schiff: ‘No evidence’ to support Trump’s spy theory

The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee said Sunday that there is “no evidence” to support President Trump’s claim that there was an FBI informant embedded in his presidential campaign.

{mosads}“This is just a piece of propaganda the president wants to put out and repeat,” Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said on ABC’s “This Week.”

“And certainly we’ve seen this pattern before,” he added. “They put this out there and then they say ‘well, now that it’s out there, we need to investigate it.’ ”

Trump has recently argued that the FBI improperly spied on his presidential campaign through the informant.

News reports suggest the informant, a former government official now working at a university in England, held meetings with three different people in the Trump campaign. 

Trump has argued the use of the informant by the previous administration was a political trick, while suggesting the informant was paid for his actions. 

“The Democrats are now alluding to the concept that having an Informant placed in an opposing party’s campaign is different than having a Spy, as illegal as that may be,” he tweeted on Friday. “But what about an ‘Informant’ who is paid a fortune and who ‘sets up’ way earlier than the Russian Hoax?”

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who appeared on the ABC show before Schiff, defended the FBI, saying he believes law enforcement were right to investigate “certain individuals” with suspicious histories connected to Russia.

“Even Senator Rubio this morning saying well, we should look in and find out if this is true,” Schiff said later. “But this is part of the propaganda machine, ‘let’s spread a completely fallacious story and then let’s say that it needs to be investigated and give it a life of its own.’ ”