Top Democrat Adam Schiff doubles down on Trump-Russia links: ‘Undoubtedly, there is collusion’

Rep. Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, is continuing to insist he’s seen evidence that President Donald Trump colluded with Russia, contradicting the summarized findings of special counsel Robert Mueller.

“Undoubtedly, there is collusion,” the California Democrat told the Washington Post. “We will continue to investigate the counterintelligence issues. That is, is the president or people around him compromised in any way by a hostile foreign power? . . . It doesn’t appear that was any part of Mueller’s report.”

Attorney General William Barr quoted Mueller in his four-page summary of the special counsel’s investigation: “[T]he investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.”

Since Barr’s memo was released Sunday, Schiff has attempted to parse the difference between Mueller’s refusal to indict the president and the possibility evidence could exist that Trump and his campaign attempted to collude with Russia.

“Mueller did not find sufficient evidence to establish conspiracy, notwithstanding Russian offers to help Trump’s campaign, their acceptance, and a litany of concealed interactions with Russia,” Schiff wrote on Twitter earlier this week. “I trust Mueller’s prosecutorial judgement, but the country must see the evidence.”

House Democrats have demanded Barr released Mueller’s report to Congress by April 2, but a Justice Department official told reporters it would be “weeks” before Mueller’s report would be made public.

Schiff’s continued insistence that there is evidence Trump colluded with Russia during the election has drawn intense criticism from Republicans, including the president himself, who reportedly referred to the California Democrat as “pencil neck” multiple times during a meeting with Republican lawmakers on Tuesday. Schiff has also been criticized relentlessly on Fox News over the past two days, highlighted by Trump on Twitter.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) has called on Schiff to step down from the House Intelligence Committee, saying he owes “an apology to the American people.” White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said Schiff should resign from Congress over his continued insistence the president colluded with Russia.

“He's saying there was evidence of collusion in plain sight, that he knew of it,” Conway said of Schiff on Fox News Tuesday. “If he's got evidence, put him under oath.”

While other Democrats have been more reserved on the issue of Russian collusion following Barr’s summary of the Mueller report, they have defended Schiff and dismissed the criticism as partisan attacks.

“Chairman Schiff has done an outstanding job and that’s the reason why he’s subject to these ridiculous attacks," Ashley Etienne, spokesperson for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, said in a statement. “Democrats aren’t going to be intimidated by the White House or Congressional Republicans, we’re not going to be distracted from securing the release of the full Mueller report and the underlying evidence, and we will continue to pursue legitimate oversight because that’s what the Constitution requires.”

“It doesn’t mean there wasn’t an enormous amount of smoke there,” Rep. Peter Welch (D., Vt.), a member of the House Intelligence Committee, told the Post. “This was a fine legal distinction Mr. Mueller had to make.”