Rep. Schiff accuses Comey of withholding information on Russia probe The ranking member on the House intelligence panel warns that lawmakers may have to subpoena the FBI.

The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday accused FBI Director James Comey of withholding crucial information about its probe into Russian interference in the election and raised the prospect of subpoenaing the agency.

“I would say at this point we know less than a fraction of what the FBI knows,” Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) told reporters after a briefing with Comey.


“I appreciate we had a long briefing and testimony from the director today, but in order for us to do our investigation in a thorough and credible way, we’re gonna need the FBI to fully cooperate, to be willing to tell us the length and breadth of any counterintelligence investigations they are conducting,” Schiff said. “At this point, the director was not willing to do that.”

The briefing came as Attorney General Jeff Sessions is facing calls to recuse himself from an investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia after The Washington Post reported that Sessions met twice with the Russian ambassador last year and didn’t tell senators about it during his confirmation hearing.

Schiff described the House panel’s investigation as “among the most serious that we’ve ever done” but argued that the committee can’t thoroughly do its job if the Justice Department or FBI “is unwilling to tell us what indeed they looked at, what leads they have followed, where they have found substance and where they have not.”

“I’m disappointed we didn’t have that briefing today,” he said.

During the briefing, Schiff said, Comey faced “repeated questions about the scope of any investigation they were doing” and “individuals that may be the subject of any counterterrorism investigation.”

“The director declined to answer those questions,” Schiff said.

Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), who chairs the committee, maintained that there is no evidence of contacts between Trump associates and Russian officials, aside from former national security adviser Michael Flynn’s call to the Russian ambassador before Trump was sworn in.

“But, as I’ve said, I read about this in the newspaper, and I see some of you talking about it,” Nunes said. “If you have those names, of those people, if you wanna come forward as a whistleblower and bring those to us, we would greatly appreciate it because we would like to have those names, bring those people in, but we need some credible evidence in order to do that.”

Schiff raised the prospect that it could have been Sessions' Justice Department that advised Comey to be less than forthcoming. “It was unclear whether that decision was a decision he was making on his own or a decision that he is making in consultation with the Department of Justice,” he said.

An FBI spokeswoman declined to comment on Schiff’s allegations.

Nunes, however, argued that “it’s not a matter of them not being forthcoming” but rather “a matter of them providing us timely information when they can get it to us.”

“It’s not always easy to get” that information, he said, noting that sometimes “it’s complicated.”

He then advised reporters to "be careful" because congressional investigators could get interested in their contacts with Russian officials.

“I’m sure some of you are in contact with the Russian embassy, so be careful what you ask for here because if we start getting transcripts of any of you or other Americans talking to the press, then we can — do you want us to conduct an investigation on you or other Americans because you were talking to the Russian embassy?” he asked. “I just think we need to be careful.”

Schiff added that lawmakers have yet to be fully briefed on counterintelligence by the FBI. “That can’t persist,” he said. “If we’re gonna do our job, the FBI is going to have to fully cooperate with us, and that means they can't say, ‘We’ll tell you about this, but we won't tell you about that.’”

The House intel ranking member also indicated that Comey and the Justice Department should be more cooperative and forthcoming at their next meeting “because we’re gonna need that information.”

“And we’re better off getting that through the voluntary cooperation of the FBI than having to contemplate whether we need to subpoena the FBI,” he warned.

The embattled attorney general has faced a growing number of calls from fellow Republicans urging him to recuse himself from any investigation into Trump’s ties to Russia, while Democratic leaders have insisted that Sessions resign from his post as the nation’s chief law enforcement official.

“Up until now, I wasn’t sure whether there should be a special prosecutor because that is a function of a couple of things. It’s a function of whether the attorney general can be independent or whether there’s a conflict of interest or an appearance of impropriety — and whether there’s something concrete and specific enough to be investigated,” he said. “I am now convinced that both of those criteria are met and that an independent prosecutor should be appointed. Certainly, the attorney general is in no position to oversee any investigation or prosecution involving any of the counterintelligence issues concerning Russia. So I am now convinced that an independent prosecutor is necessary.”

As for Nunes, he said, “I have no idea” if Sessions should recuse himself “because we have no idea what he did or didn’t do.”

Having reserved judgment earlier on whether Sessions should resign, Schiff later Thursday called on Sessions to resign.

Josh Gerstein contributed to this report.

