Schiff rushes to Liz Cheney’s defense over reports that Jan 6 committee staff turned on her

The final report from the partisan Jan. 6 committee is forthcoming and Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) found himself in the unenviable position of having to defend outgoing Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) Sunday as it pertained to reports of her influence causing conflict within the ranks.

(Video: CNN)

Since its inception, conservatives have been aware of the motives of the witch hunt against former President Donald Trump self-styled as substantive, neutral investigations and not at all a kangaroo court hell bent on issuing criminal referrals to the Justice Department. Now, following a divisive story from the Washington Post citing staffers that Cheney irked by focusing too much on Trump, Schiff joined CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union” in an effort to course correct.

“Is it true?” she asked the congressman of the final J6 report focusing almost entirely on Trump and leaving out other portions of the investigation.

“No,” Schiff responded before couching with his own lack of knowledge of the final product, “I mean at least I certainly hope not.”

“I would like to see our report be as broad and inclusive as possible,” he went on ambiguously. “We are discussing as a committee among the members, what belongs in the body of the report, what belongs in the appendices of the report, what is beyond the scope of our investigation, and we’ll reach those decisions in a collaborative manner.”

As had previously been reported, the Washington Post had cited fifteen former and current staffers speaking anonymously about their “expressed concerns that important findings unrelated to Trump will not become available to the American public.”

“Several committee staff members were floored earlier this month when they were told that a draft report would focus almost entirely on Trump and the work of the committee’s Gold Team, excluding reams of other investigative work,” the Post stated. “Potentially left on the cutting room floor, or relegated to an appendix, were many revelations from the Blue Team — the group that dug into the law enforcement and intelligence community’s failure to assess the looming threat and prepare for the well-forecast attack on the Capitol. The proposed report would also cut back on much of the work of the Green Team, which looked at financing for the Jan. 6 attack, and the Purple Team, which examined militia groups and extremism.”

Bash went on to cite a statement from committee spokesman Tim Mulvey who said of Cheney’s staffers, “…their cowardice is helping Donald Trump and others responsible for the violence of January 6th,” after recounting remarks from the congresswoman’s spokesperson Jeremy Adler about the conditions Cheney required to sign on to the final report including no blanket denigrations of Republicans as “inherently racist.”

On those matters Schiff deflected and said, “I don’t think the back and forth is particularly helpful for the committee and I don’t want to engage you in it.”

“We’re going to get to a consensus on the report, we’re very close to that now,” he claimed. “We’re close to putting down the pen and going to print. And I think the report is going to set out in, I hope, a very comprehensive way what took place, what led to that attack and all the circumstances around that.”

He also opined on suggestions that Cheney’s actions on the committee have been geared toward setting herself up for a potential presidential run. “I’ve never viewed it that way,” Schiff contended, “and I think her role on the committee has been indispensable.”

Kevin Haggerty

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