One of President Trump's most prominent enemies is being accused of "treasonous" conduct by a whistleblower with ties to the intelligence community.
Senator Adam Schiff (D-Ca) personally approved leaking classified information - which is a serious crime - in the effort to smear Trump as a Russian asset during his first term as president, according to a former staffer on the House Intelligence Committee, where Schiff was the top Democrat.
Schiff was one of the most visible foes of Trump during his first term, largely because of Schiff's role in amplifying the false Trump-Russia narrative.
An exhaustive investigation by Robert Mueller concluded in 2019 that there was no evidence of collusion between Trump and Russia.
Beginning in 2017, a Democratic staffer on the House Intelligence Committee started approaching the FBI with concerns about then-Rep. Schiff and other Democrats on the committee.
The career intelligence officer said that Schiff and other Democrats took action to neutralize Trump's shocking election as president in 2016, which they saw as a "constitutional crisis."
The mood among House Intelligence Democrats "was indescribable” after Trump's win, and Schiff “was particularly upset, as he believed he would have been appointed as the Director of CIA” in a Hillary Clinton administration.
According to the whistleblower, Democrats began sharing classified information with the media to damage Trump - conduct the whistleblower found to be "treasonous" and "unethical."
"Democratic minority leadership of HPSCI was aware of the leaks but was under the impression that leaking the information was one way to topple the administration and fix the constitutional crisis," the whistleblower said.
In a 2023 interview, the whistleblower recalled one "all-hands" meeting where Schiff gave explicit directions to publicize information "that was derogatory to President of the United States DONALD J. TRUMP."
The "system" that was established to tarnish Trump ran like clockwork. In one instance, Schiff and Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Ca.) viewed "a particularly sensitive document" that appeared "almost verbatim" in the news within 24 hours.
A statement from Schiff dismissed the testimony as a "smear" from FBI director Kash Patel and a disgruntled employee who "was fired by the House Intelligence Committee for cause in early 2017."
However, the FBI was told in 2017 that the whistleblower was fired over politics. A Republican staffer who spoke with the whistleblower was told that they had been fired because there was "an expectation of leaking and he refused to participate.”
Responding to the bombshell testimony, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that Trump "wants to see Adam Schiff held accountable for the countless lies he told the American people in relation to the Russiagate scandal."
"I understand Kash Patel, last night, declassified a 302 FBI document showing that a whistleblower, who is a Democrat, a career intelligence officer who worked for Democrats on the House Intel Committee for more than a decade, repeatedly warned the FBI in 2017 that then-Rep. Adam Schiff had approved leaking classified information to smear then President Donald Trump over the Russiagate scandal," she added.
Schiff is separately facing potential criminal charges for mortgage fraud.
