Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., whose party under Barack Obama used the power of the federal government to undermine the Trump campaign and his presidency, says he's worried the current administration will "go after" the "president's enemies."
The Washington Examiner reported Schiff's comments in a recent podcast called "Talking Feds."
Schiff is "unnerved" Attorney General William Barr's commissioning of U.S. Attorney John Durham to probe the origins of the Obama administration's Crossfire Hurricane investigation of the Trump campaign
"One of the concerns I have with Bill Barr is that the worst is yet to come. I mean, he's got a terrible, destructive track record as it is, and it may get worse in the coming days," Schiff said. "But what we have seen largely is Barr's intervention to protect the president."
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Schiff pointed to Barr's rollout of special counsel Robert Mueller's report and his "intervention" in cases arising from the Russia investigation to "help Trump cronies" such as Roger Stone and former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
Stone's sentence for process crimes was commuted by the president, and the DOJ has asked for the dismissal of the case against Flynn.
"What we have not yet had full visibility on is not Barr's use of the shield to protect corruption writ large of his boss, Donald Trump, but the sword," Schiff said. "How he may be using the power of the Justice Department through Durham or others to go after the president's enemies. And in many respects, that is a far greater, more serious abuse of the power of the Justice Department than his use of the shield."
The Examiner characterized that as a "a well-worn line of criticism for Schiff, who has complained since last year that the Justice Department has kept the Democratic-led House about its inquiries into whether there was inappropriate 'spying' on Trump's 2016 campaign and other misconduct."
The "anxiety" over the ongoing investigation has increased, the report said, as Trump has accused Obama and his vice president, Joe Biden, of what he dubs the "Obamagate" scandal. Barr, however, has said he does not expect the two to be targets of the investigation.
Barr has said the Durham review "will not be a tit-for-tat exercise. We are not going to lower our standards to achieve a particular result."
Schiff said his "concern" is that Barr "may be preparing the use of the sword in a politicized and dangerous and desperate way."
Barr has said it was "infuriating" that officials "misled the American people grossly over a long period of time with exaggerated claims and misinformation [about the Trump campaign], and they haven’t been held accountable."
He said voters must hold Schiff accountable.
"If the people of his district want him to continue to behave as he has, then they can send him back to office," he said.
Richard Grenell, when he was acting director of national intelligence, declassified testimonies from witnesses in the House Russia probe that revealed James Clapper, who was DNI under Barack Obama, testifying in 2017 he "never saw any direct empirical evidence" of collusion.
But in a media appearance at the time, Clapper said the Trump campaign was "essentially aiding and abetting the Russians and having contacts, dozens of contacts, with Russians, some of whom were connected officially to Russian intelligence, and not reporting it."
National Security Adviser Susan Rice, Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates and U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power also said under oath that saw no evidence of collusion.
Further, DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz found the Justice Department and the FBI during the Obama administration committed at least 17 "significant errors and omissions" in their application for warrants to spy on the Trump campaign.
And it's now known that the Steele dossier, the anti-Trump document funded by the DNC and Hillary Clinton's campaign, may have been compromised by Russian disinformation.
Schiff's dedication to the collusion story line has prompted some Republicans to call for an investigation of him.