"As he’s made plain in the past, he feels it’s perfectly fine to lie to the public," Rep. Adam Schiff said of the president. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Legal Schiff: ‘Best way to get the truth would be to put the president under oath’

Rep. Adam Schiff told NBC on Sunday morning that the best way to get real answers from President Donald Trump in the ongoing Russia investigation would be to ask him under oath.

“I do think ultimately it’s a mistake because probably the best way to get the truth would be to put the president under oath,” Schiff (D-Calif.) said. “Because, as he’s made plain in the past, he feels it’s perfectly fine to lie to the public. After all, he has said, ‘It’s not like I’m talking before a magistrate.’ Well, maybe he should talk before a magistrate.”


Schiff noted that, by relying on written answers, special counsel Robert Mueller is getting the lawyers’ answers to questions, just as much as he is getting the clients’ answers, and that it’s equally important to be able to ask follow-up questions in real-time.

In terms of former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen’s recent testimony, Schiff said that it’ll be challenging to take Cohen at his word without some sort of substantiation.

“I don’t think in terms of making the case to the public — and here we’re not making the case to a jury — about what took place that we can solely rely on the testimony of Michael Cohen,” Schiff said. “We’re going to need corroboration.”

“You know to me, in looking at what Michael Cohen said in the open hearing and then what his lawyers said afterward, it was very much like what Donald Trump did when he said he had no knowledge of these payments to Stormy Daniels and then Rudy Giuliani said, ‘Oh, yes, he did.’ Well, where is the truth there? We asked Michael Cohen about this extensively. Those transcripts will be made public. The public can evaluate his credibility themselves.”