“We’re certainly going to look at work that GOP obstructed on our committee,” Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said. | Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP Congress Schiff: Democratic House will tackle the oversight that GOP 'abdicated'

California Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff vowed Tuesday to ensure that the House Intelligence Committee reclaims its duty to conduct oversight of the Trump administration — a job he said the GOP “completely abdicated.“

“It was really worse than abdicating the responsibility of the committee,” Schiff, who is on track to chair the committee during the next Congress, said in an interview on MSNBC. “The majority went further by being complicit in the president’s attacks on the independence of the Justice Department, on the men and women of the FBI, on our intelligence community. So we also need to restore the relationship between our committee and the intelligence community and law enforcement.“


Schiff has been one of the most prominent critics of GOP-led probes into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and allegations of Trump campaign collusion with the Kremlin. Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas), who took over the House Intelligence Committee's investigation after Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) stepped aside amid questions about his political bias, concluded in a final report this spring that no evidence exists of collusion.

Conaway defended the committee’s investigation as thorough, citing its review of tens of thousands of documents, interviews with dozens of witnesses and visits to seven countries over 14 months. But Schiff and other Democrats said the GOP obstructed or overlooked additional investigative avenues.

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Asked if he would bring certain Trump operatives back for interviews, such as the president’s son Donald Trump Jr. or operative Roger Stone, Schiff said he couldn’t comment.

“We’re certainly going to look at work that GOP obstructed on our committee,” Schiff said, adding that Democrats won’t officially control the House until January.

“We‘ll have to see what Bob Mueller has been able to do, and what Bob Mueller has been able to say, either via indictment or via a report,” Schiff said, referring to the special counsel investigation. “That will also guide what we do on our committee.“