Adam Schiff Says Republicans Stopped Efforts to Hold Steve Bannon in Contempt: ‘A Rather Sad Chapter’
Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee tasked with investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election voted down a Democratic motion to hold former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon in contempt of Congress, the top Democrat on the committee said Thursday.
Rep. Adam Schiff told reporters on Capitol Hill the Republicans voted down “all of the minority motions,” including “about a dozen motions requiring subpoenas for those who refused to answer questions” posed by the committee. Bannon cited executive privilege and refused to cooperate with lawmakers after being forced to comply with a subpoena and face the committee in February, leading many to believe he would be held in contempt by Democrats and Republicans alike.
“We had a series of motions that we wished to offer including holding Steve Bannon in contempt, something which was made necessary by [Bannon’s] refusal to answer broad categories of questions … that’s no way to conduct an investigation,” Schiff said Thursday. “We also moved to issue subpoenas for a wide set of documents. We’ll continue to press the majority to make the votes on those issues public, as well as the discussion, and the debate that occurred around them. Suffice it to say, though, the majority was not interested in conducting a further investigation, even when the flaws in what we have done so far has become so apparent over the course of the last week.”
“Our work will go on nonetheless,” Schiff added, calling the GOP’s end to their involvement in the investigation “a rather sad chapter in our committee’s long history.”
Watch a clip of Schiff’s presser with reporters via CNN above.
[image via screengrab]
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