House Republicans are seeking to bring a censure resolution against Rep. Adam B. Schiff.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, Florida Republican, introduced a privileged resolution Tuesday to censure Mr. Schiff, California Democrat, over his allegations against former President Donald Trump of Russian collusion in the 2016 election.
Her resolution, which includes a $16 million fine, condemns and censures Mr. Schiff “for conduct that misleads the American people in a way that is not befitting an elected Member of the House of Representatives.”
It also references special counsel John Durham’s recent report that gave a blistering assessment of the FBI’s investigation into Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign.
The measure also says Mr. Schiff abused his power against Mr. Trump’s campaign allies when he was a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
This includes “abusing privileged access to classified information, Representative Schiff composed a false memo justifying the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant application on Trump associate Carter Page.”
The resolution also says he “exploited his positions on HPSCI to encourage and excuse abusive intelligence investigations of Americans for political purposes.”
Ms. Luna, tweeted Wednesday evening that the censure resolution is expected on the House floor Thursday.
House Republican Majority Leader Steve Scalise said, “I support Rep. Luna’s resolution to censure Adam Schiff, and I’m working with her on the best timing to bring it to the House Floor to help it pass,” he said.
“The Schiff has hit the fan,” Ms. Luna tweeted.
A procedural vote related to the resolution will come to the floor on Wednesday.
Ms. Luna’s resolution came to the floor the same day Mr. Trump, who was investigated in the last Congress by the committee led by Mr. Schiff in the wake of Mr. Trump’s first impeachment, before the former president pleaded not guilty to a 37-count federal indictment from the Justice Department on allegations that he improperly kept classified documents.
In a letter to Democratic colleagues on Tuesday, first reported by CNN, Mr. Schiff called the resolution “false and defamatory” and said that Ms. Luna was bringing the measure to the floor “to gratify the former President’s MAGA allies, and distract from Donald Trump’s legal troubles by retaliating against me for my role in exposing his abuses of power, and leading the first impeachment against him.”
Mr. Schiff was the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee for many years until this Congress, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy removed him and Rep. Eric Swalwell, California Democrat, from the panel. Mr. Schiff, who is among a pool of primary Democrats running to replace the retiring Sen. Dianne Feinstein, accused Mr. Trump of colluding with Russia in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election.
