New House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) says he plans to send all witness transcripts to Special Counsel Robert Mueller for review so that he can determine who could be charged with lying to Congress.
Schiff also says committee Republicans, when they held the majority, often would intervene during interviews to tell witnesses they did not have to answer questions they did not want to answer or say anything they did not want to say.
CNN:
"We hope, as one of our first acts, to make the transcripts of our witnesses fully available to special counsel for any purpose, including the bringing of perjury charges if necessary against any of the witnesses," the California Democrat told CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union."
Schiff declined to name who among the committee's witnesses he believed might have committed perjury, but he said he had concerns about "multiple witnesses."
"I think Bob Mueller, by virtue of the fact that he has been able to conduct this investigation using tools that we didn't have in our committee, meaning compulsion, is in a better position to determine, OK, who was telling the truth, who wasn't, and who could I make a case against in terms of perjury?" Schiff said.
The committee already voted unanimously last month to share Roger Stone's 2017 interview.
The committee staged 73 interviews with dozens of witnesses, including Jared Kushner, Trump Jr and Stone. Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer, has already pleaded guilty to perjury for lying to Congress over attempts to make a deal to construct a Trump Tower in Moscow.
Schiff said he was “trying to deconflict” with special counsel Mueller’s investigation because over the last two years the committee, under Republican leadership, had actively tried to make the special counsel’s work more difficult.
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Trump Jr is in peril because he orchestrated the now infamous Trump Tower meeting with a group of Russians after being promised “dirt” on Hillary Clinton. He would face problems if he told Congress that his father was unaware of the meeting but Mueller has obtained evidence to contradict that.
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Kushner, Trump’s son in law and senior adviser, has faced questions over his contacts with Russian officials during the transition period between the November 2016 election and the start of the Trump administration in January 2017.
Mueller’s investigation has had access to emails and other records which can be used to test whether witnesses were honest in their evidence to Congress.
Schiff did not name any individuals, but said: “There’s no reason to protect these witnesses. There’s every reason to validate Congress’s interest in not having people come before it and lie.
“I think people felt that they had some kind of immunity when the GOP majority at the time because they would often intervene and tell witnesses: ‘You don’t have to answer that question.’”
Schiff also underlined that his committee will start to investigate the Trump Organization and any possible connections to Russian money.
CNN:
Schiff also indicated in the interview that his first hearing would touch on authoritarianism around the globe.
"We have a rise of authoritarianism around the world, a real rise of autocracy," Schiff said, adding, "This is a real danger, a present danger for the United States, this rise of authoritarianism, and we need to better understand it, and we need to figure out a better strategy to counter it."
Schiff plans to make interview transcripts 'fully available' to Mueller (CNN)
Trump aides may be in legal jeopardy as Democrats give evidence to Mueller (The Guardian)