Reps. Schiff and Swalwell Move to Subpoena Trump-Putin Interpreter, GOP Votes Down
Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House Intel Committee, calls to subpoena President Trump’s interpreter from the Helsinki summit: “Under these circumstances, I think it’s negligent for us not to find out” https://t.co/clbFMbI3iH pic.twitter.com/XxEGlvTZUR
— New Day (@NewDay) July 19, 2018
“It is our motion that the interpreter be subpoenaed to come and testify in closed session before our committee,” said Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) this morning in making a motion to the House Intel Committee, along with Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) to subpoena the interpreter who was essentially the only American witness to the private meeting between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday.
That motion was voted down, as Schiff noted on Twitter.
BREAKING: @RepSwalwell and I just made a motion in House Intel Committee to subpoena the American interpreter during the summit — the only witness to Trump’s meeting with Putin. This is an extraordinary remedy, but Trump’s actions necessitate it.
Republicans voted it down.
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) July 19, 2018
“I regret that we have to request this in today’s meeting. We requested a business meeting next week, but that request has been declined,” he said. “This may be our last opportunity before we go into an extended recess to vote to subpoena the interpreter and find out if there are any other national security problems that arose from this meeting.”
On CNN, Alisyn Camerota asked if Schiff might see the down side in this move.
“Lots of people don’t want to do it because they say that world leaders need to be able to speak freely to each other and not think that they’re going to be outed by an interpreter in there, who it’s not their job to give context to give context on what they heard, it’s their job to verbatim to tell the leaders what is being said,” she told him. “So do you see the down side to bringing in the interpreter?”
“You know, this is certainly not a broad policy, I don’t want to see it happen all the time,” Schiff replied, calling it an “extraordinary remedy.” He used the same phrase when making the motion.
“This is an extraordinary remedy, I realize, but then it’s extraordinary for the president of the United States to ask all of his senior staff essentials to leave the room and have a conversation with an adversary, and then in a public conversation disavow his own intelligence agencies and in many respects disavow his own country,” he said to the House committee.
Watch the clip above, courtesy of CNN.
[Featured image via screengrab]
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