Adam Schiff blasts Devin Nunes for “providing cover” to Trump

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. on Friday. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. on Friday. Photo: J. Scott Applewhite, Associated Press Photo: J. Scott Applewhite, Associated Press Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Adam Schiff blasts Devin Nunes for “providing cover” to Trump 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

California Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee investigating links between Russia and Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, told The Chronicle Friday that it’s hard to have confidence in the panel’s GOP chairman because he has been “providing political cover” to the White House.

“This is no way to conduct an investigation,” said Schiff, as he blasted fellow California Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Tulare.

Schiff, D-Burbank, said Nunes’ actions this week, including briefing President Trump on “incidential” intelligence on the president and his transition team discovered as part of court-approved surveillance of foreign powers, compromise his ability to lead a bi-partisan investigation of whether anyone on the campaign coordinated with Russians.

On Friday, Nunes announced that Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, would testify before the House Intelligence Committee in closed session as part of its investigation. The committee wants to look into links between Manafort and a wealthy Russian close to President Vladimir Putin. Schiff prefers that the hearing be held in open session so the public could see it.

Also on Friday, Nunes canceled a public hearing scheduled for Tuesday that was supposed to feature former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former CIA Director John Brennan and Sally Yates, who briefly served as acting attorney general in January.

But Nunes has been opaque — “inconsistent” in Schiff’s words — about the content of the intelligence on Trump and his transition team. Nunes said it had nothing to do with Russian interference in the November election and was collected legally. Nunes’ main concern seems to be that the information was widely disseminated among intelligence officials, who had revealed the identities — “unmasked” — the people involved.

But Schiff and other Republicans such as Sen. John McCain, R-AZ, were aghast that Nunes shared the information personally with Trump and not members of the Intelligence Committee. Nunes also briefed House Speaker Paul Ryan.

“It’s hard to say anybody can have full confidence after the events of this week,” Schiff told The Chronicle editorial board Friday via Skype. “You don’t take information to the White House instead of your own committee if it purports to shed light on one of the things that we’re investigating.”

Nunes, a member of Trump’s transition team who is close to the president, told Fox News commentator Sean Hannity this week that “I felt I had a duty and obligation to tell (Trump) because, as you know, he’s been taking a lot of heat in the news media."

Trump later said “I very much appreciated the fact that they found what they found.”

Schiff was baffled Friday about what the relevance of the information Nunes purports to have seen. He said Nunes needs to decide whether he wants to “continuing being a surrogate” for Trump or lead an independent investigation.

If the information wasn’t about the Russian investigation and if, according to Nunes “there’s no evidence that anything was unlawfully collected,” Schiff said “the only thing I can surmise is that this was an effort to give the president some cover.”

It appears that Nunes was helping the White House use this new information given to him “to deflect criticism about the Russian investigation. So it isn’t internally consistent,” Schiff said Friday. “But one thing is undeniable: This is no way to conduct an investigation.”

Regardless of Nunes’ behavior, Schiff said that Democrats are not going to walk away from the investigation. Even though the Democratic members don’t have the votes to require the committee to do anything, he hopes public pressure will result in creation of an independent commission to investigate Russian connections.

“If we were to talk away and say that the chairman is fatally compromised and we’re not going to participate, then none of this is going to get investigated by the House, and that is just unacceptable,” Schiff said Friday. “We’re going to soldier on.

“But I think and hope the pressure becomes too great for the speaker to resist supporting an independent commission,” he said.

So far, both Ryan and Nunes have declined to support an independent investigation.

Joe Garofoli is The San Francisco Chronicle’s senior political writer. Email: jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @joegarofoli