Friedman: To what extent have you, as a member of the Gang of Eight, been briefed on the content of these conversations?

Schiff: We have not been briefed yet. I was just in the process yesterday of requesting any tapes or transcripts be provided to the Gang of Eight.

Friedman: The House Intelligence Committee has an ongoing investigation [into any connections between Russia and the Trump campaign]. What more do you want to see that would satisfy you?

Schiff: First of all I want to make sure that the scope of our investigation is broad enough to include the events that led up to Flynn’s resignation. Plainly we have the charter to look at any of those contacts during the campaign, but it would be a natural extension to look at Flynn’s contacts after the campaign that resulted in his removal. [Senate Majority Leader] Mitch McConnell said today that he thinks that ought to be the subject of the Senate Intelligence investigation. I’d like to see us get the same commitment from [House Speaker Paul Ryan]. And I was concerned when the speaker refused to make that commitment today. If the speaker isn’t willing to do the investigation that’s necessary here, he should allow us to form an independent commission and he ought to get out of the way.

Friedman: What can you do as the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee to pressure the Republicans to take on that extra investigation? [The GOP lawmakers] Devin Nunes and Jason Chaffetz indicated today that there’s not a lot of interest on the Republican side in a stepped-up investigation.

Schiff: I think that [position is] going to be very difficult for the speaker to maintain, and ultimately it’s the speaker’s decision what he will allow his committees to investigate. If Mitch McConnell and the Senate Republicans think that this is an appropriate source of investigation, how does the speaker explain why he won’t let the House look into it?

Friedman: What questions do you have specifically regarding the president himself?

Schiff: The first is whether any of the president’s team collaborated or colluded at all with Russia during the campaign—during Russian illegal activities in the United States. That, I think, is a very serious allegation that needs to be investigated. But I also want to know if Flynn’s conversation with the Russian ambassador about sanctions was something that the president asked him to do—was something the president was aware of, and was being done at the direction of the president, or any of the president’s staff, [Chief Strategist Steve] Bannon or anyone. Or whether the national-security adviser was acting as a free agent, which seems implausible and unlikely.

Friedman: Sean Spicer in his press conference today said [the White House] determined that [Flynn] did not do anything illegal. This was an issue of [lost] trust. And there’s been a lot of talk among legal experts about how this is not a violation of the Logan Act, which has been defunct for 200 years. So even if there was [direction] from some members of the administration [for Flynn to] bring up sanctions [with the Russian ambassador], why is that such a problem?