Adam Schiff Fighting to Keep His Impeachment Subpoena Records Hidden from Public
Political watchdog Judicial Watch files lawsuit against anti-Trump Democrat
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Anti-Trump Democrat Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) is fighting to keep his impeachment subpoenas hidden from the public, according to reports.
Political watchdog Judicial Watch has filed a lawsuit against former impeachment "manager" Schiff to gain access to subpoenas issued last year as part of the Democrats' investigations into President Donald Trump.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Schiff, who has led the charge against Trump since he was inaugurated, is now fighting in court to keep the documents secret.
Schiff has filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch, who sought access to “the controversial subpoenas issued for phone records.”
The records led to the revealing of contact between Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), and journalist John Solomon, among others, The Washington Examiner reports.
“[Schiff’s] legal team, led by Douglas Letter, the Democratic-led House’s general counsel, told the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Friday that ‘these requests and subpoenas were integral to the Committee’s inquiry and consistent with its mandate to investigate and issue a report’ about whether Trump should be impeached,” the Examiner adds.
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Judicial Watch’s lawsuit had argued: “The records are of critical public importance as the subpoenas were issued without any lawful basis and violated the rights of numerous private citizens.”
It further stated that the “disclosure of the requested records would serve the public interest by providing information about the unlawful issuance of the subpoenas.”
"The requested records fall within the scope of the public’s right of access to governmental records,” the suit adds.
Schiff’s motion argued that Judicial Watch “has not demonstrated that the public interest in disclosure outweighs the House Defendants’ interest in non-disclosure,” adding that “it is unclear for what precise purpose” the conservative watchdog group wanted the records, claiming it “does not allege whose rights have been violated.”
More from Dunleavy:
Schiff’s lawyers cited four reasons why the court should dismiss the case: They claimed that “the doctrine of sovereign immunity” deprives the court of jurisdiction over House Democrats, argued the records sought by Judicial Watch “are absolutely protected by the Speech or Debate Clause” of the Constitution because they were obtained during impeachment, asserted that the subpoena documents are not “public records” and thus aren’t subject to the common law right of public access, and said Judicial Watch “fails to state a claim because Congress has created a comprehensive scheme for the review of government records — the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) — that preempts the common law right sought to be vindicated by this litigation.”
As The Daily Wire previously reported, during the course of Schiff’s partisan investigation into whether Trump abused his power when speaking to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky and then obstructed congress, phone records were selectively released to implicate Nunes, Giuliani, and Solomon in Trump’s alleged misdeeds.
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According to The Daily Wire, part of the attempt was to tie Solomon to Lev Parnas, who was indicted for lying and falsifying records, though Solomon spoke to Parnas for a story months before the indictment and journalists often have to speak to bad people for a story.
When The Daily Wire originally wrote that article, Nunes provided a response to Schiff’s publishing of the California Republican’s phone records.
“The Democrats’ impeachment charade is flailing, and desperate people do desperate things,” Nunes said.
"So, Schiff suddenly published phone records of myself, current and former Republican staff members, and a journalist whose reporting he doesn’t like.
"It’s a gross abuse of power for a congressman to go after his political opponents, staffers, and reporters in this way, but it’s characteristic of the way Schiff has run this entire show.
"He’s going to need a long rehabilitation period when this is over."
