Originally published June 21, 2023 5:47 pm PDT
The U.S. House of Representatives voted on Wednesday to censure California Democrat Representative Adam Schiff for statements made about inquiries into former President Donald Trump’s Russia ties.
Schiff is the 25th House member to be censured, according to The Associated Press.
The resolution passed along party lines.
Ahead of the vote, Schiff was resolute, claiming he would regard the formal disapproval as a “badge of honor.”
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy abandoned reading the resolution aloud following Democrat interruptions.
The resolution against Schiff, former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, says he abused his power during Trump’s presidency by claiming there was collusion evidence between Trump’s campaign and Russia.
Both the Justice Department and Republican-led House investigations in 2017 found no evidence of criminal conspiracy.
The GOP resolution could potentially prompt an ethics investigation into Schiff’s conduct.
The California Democrat responded to the allegations by dismissing the resolution as “nonsense.”
He argued it accuses him of leading a “vast Deep State conspiracy.”
Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, the censure resolution’s sponsor, argued that Schiff’s allegations against Trump had severely impacted American families and led to an unnecessary expenditure of over $30 million on the Justice Department probe.
Schiff countered that Republicans are trying to show their loyalty to Trump, asserting the censure was “red meat” thrown by McCarthy to Republican members amid conflicts over government spending.
As part of her resolution, Luna cited a report by special counsel John Durham that criticized the FBI for rushing into its investigation of Trump’s campaign.
However, Durham did not claim political bias or partisanship drove the FBI’s actions.
In a Tuesday press release, she highlighted the importance of holding Schiff accountable for “abusing and exploiting his official position and bringing dishonor to the House of Representatives.”
“To be clear, this is not retribution. The GOP recently voted to refer one of our own to Ethics for investigation. The fact is, as you saw today with Hunter Biden and the DOJ, there is a double standard of justice in this country,” Rep. Luna said.
Following the censure, she told Fox News that Schiff “is going to go down in history for exactly who he is, which is someone that tore apart our country, lied to the American people.”
