Schiff believes Nunes violated his recusal with "unmasking" subpoenas
The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday said the committee's Republican chairman was in "violation" of his own recusal from the committee's Russia investigation, after subpoenas were issued this week related to the "unmasking" of Trump associates.
California Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff said California Republican Rep. Devin Nunes violated his recusal from the committee's ongoing investigation into Russian election meddling by issuing subpoenas Wednesday, after three subpoenas were issued to the FBI, CIA and National Security Agency for information about the names of Trump campaign officials who who were "unmasked" in intelligence reports from those agencies.
"The committee rules provide that the chair has to sign the subpoenas unless that authority is delegated to someone else," Schiff told MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell on Thursday.
Schiff said all subpoena authority should have been delegated to Rep. Mike Conway, the Texas Republican now in charge of the committee's investigation after Nunes recused himself from the probe in April. Schiff said he was unaware of the subpoenas until the last minute.
"That authority should have been delegated to Mike Conaway in consultation with myself," Schiff continued. "That hasn't happened yet. And I think that's a violation of the recusal by the chairman ... I hope that will change."
Schiff said the unmasking subpoenas are a part of an attempt to shift focus from the Russia probe.
"I think they're part of the White House desire to shift attention away from the Russia probe and on to the issue of unmasking," Schiff also said in the MSNBC interview.
Nunes recused himself when several groups filed complaints against him with the Office of Congressional Ethics, after Nunes reviewed controversial intelligence documents on White House grounds in March.
The congressional and FBI investigations into Russian election meddling appear to be ramping up, and getting more uncomfortable for the White House. Jared Kushner, President Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, is under scrutiny in the FBI's investigation, fired FBI Director James Comey will testify before Congress next week about a conversation he had in which the president asked him to drop the FBI's investigation into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.