Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) has filed a motion to have Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) expelled from Congress in the aftermath of the Durham report, which she claims proves Schiff pushed lies about former President Trump’s ties to Russia.
Schiff, who was the top lawmaker on the House Intelligence Committee when Democrats the House majority, has claimed in the past that Trump and his campaign colluded with the Russian government to influence the 2016 election. But the report by Trump-era Special Counsel John Durham released this week concluded the FBI did not have sufficient information to open an investigation into Trump’s ties to Russia.
“He used his position on House Intelligence to push a lie that cost American taxpayers millions of dollars and abused the trust placed in him as Chairman,” Luna said in a statement Wednesday. “The Durham Report makes clear that the Russian Collusion was a lie from day one and Schiff knowingly used his position in an attempt to divide our country.”
The report did not recommend any new charges but did offer a scathing review of how the FBI launched and carried out the investigation. It caps a four-year investigation by Durham.
Schiff, who is running for Senate in California, pushed back against Luna’s move to expel him, saying Republicans were attacking him for having the courage to stand up to Trump.
“I’m convinced when this dark chapter of our history is written, it will reflect that those Republican members who lacked the courage to stand up to the most unethical president in U.S. history, Donald Trump, consoled themselves by attacking those who did,” Schiff said in an interview with MSNBC on Wednesday.
He also dinged the conclusions of the Durham report, fighting back against the idea that it proved that his claims of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia were a lie.
“Durham spends four years trying to prove this deep state conspiracy theory that Trump kept telling his base was going to be proven,” Schiff said. “The whole thing, of course, was a big bust.”