The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee claimed on Wednesday he has seen “more than circumstantial evidence” of collusion between advisers of Donald Trump and the Russian government.
In an interview on MSNBC with Chuck Todd, California Rep. Adam Schiff was asked about former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper’s recent statement that he had seen no evidence by the time he left office on Jan. 20 that Trump’s team had cooperated with the Kremlin. (RELATED: Obama’s Intelligence Director Says No Evidence Of Trump-Russia Collusion)
“Reviewing the evidence that I have, I don’t think you can conclude that at all, far from it,” Schiff told Todd of Clapper’s recent remarks.
“But you admit…all you have right now is a circumstantial case,” Todd replied.
“Actually, no Chuck, I can tell you that the case is more than that. I can’t go into the particulars, but there is more than circumstantial evidence now,” said Schiff.
“So you have seen direct evidence of collusion?” Todd asked.
“I don’t want to go into specifics, but I can say that there is evidence that is not circumstantial and that is very much worthy of investigation.”
Schiff’s interview came just after Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes held two press briefings announcing that Trump’s personal communications may have been incidentally collected during routine surveillance of unnamed foreign targets. (RELATED: House Intel Chair: Trump’s Personal Communications May Have Been Captured By Obama Admin)
Nunes also said that the Obama administration may have improperly unmasked the identities of Trump advisers whose communications were picked up during the surveillance.
Like Schiff, Nunes declined to give more details about the information he has seen.
Schiff criticized Nunes for giving the press briefings, saying that the Republican should have briefed other members of the committee on the new information. Instead, Nunes shared the information with reporters before going to the White House to brief Trump.
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