Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna has filed a privileged resolution to censure, condemn and impose a $16 million fine on Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) for allegedly lying to the American public during the Russiagate investigation.
The Florida congresswoman introduced the resolution Tuesday, which was immediately referred to the House Ethics Committee. No cosponsors were listed for H.Res.437.
“It is the obligation of House Leadership to back up this motion for the American people and hold this feckless man accountable,” Luna said in a statement.
“This is a privileged resolution and it is the right thing for House Leadership to support and bring accountability and respect back to the House of Representatives. ALL Members of Congress must be held to this standard.”
Schiff responded Tuesday that “MAGA extremists just filed a motion to censure and fine me $16 million because I stood up to Donald Trump and his allies.”
“They’re 8 days away from defaulting on our debt, but Speaker McCarthy and his MAGA allies would rather try to silence me” he said on Twitter. “But I’m not backing down. Ever.”
Luna noted the fine amounts to half of the $32 million price tag that US taxpayers were forced to pay toward investigations about alleged Russian collusion with former President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign.
Special probes by former FBI Director Robert Mueller, Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz and former US Attorney from Connecticut John Durham have since debunked any evidence of collusion between the former president and Russia in the election.
Schiff, who served as chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, claimed in 2017 he had seen “more than circumstantial evidence” of Trump’s collusion and read information from the discredited Steele dossier into the congressional record to attempt to prove it.
“I can certainly say with confidence that there is significant evidence of collusion between the campaign and Russia,” he also said in 2018.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) had already removed Schiff earlier this year from his perch on the intelligence committee for his lack of “integrity” and “misuse” of the panel’s resources.
In 2019, Mueller first revealed there had been no collusion between Trump and Russia and there was not enough information to charge the former president with obstruction of justice.
Horowitz a year later revealed in his report Schiff had authored a memo falsely claiming that the FBI had not abused the Foreign Information Surveillance Act authorization process to tail Trump campaign aide Carter Page.
In total, Schiff’s memo included at least 17 mistakes and omissions on steps the FBI took to obtain the FISA warrant, according to the inspector general.
“Representative Schiff contributed to the gross violation of a United States citizen’s civil liberties, thereby committing the very abuses HPSCI is tasked with identifying and thwarting,” Luna’s resolution states after noting the contents of the Horowitz report.
Durham’s report, which was released last week, found that the FBI’s investigation into the Trump campaign was “seriously flawed” — an assessment that Schiff later borrowed to describe the report itself.
“This was an investigation that started in a flawed manner, it was conducted in a flawed manner, and its conclusion is a flawed conclusion,” he said on MSNBC.
Luna’s resolution also states that the California congressman falsely recounted the contents of a phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as pretext for the first impeachment of the president and that his ongoing Russiagate probe was “used to amass political gain and fundraising dollars.”
In a separate resolution last Wednesday, Luna called on Schiff to be expelled from Congress for the same Russiagate falsehoods.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) introduced a measure in January to restrict Schiff’s access to sensitive intelligence because of his “baseless claims” during the Russia probe.
The PENCIL Resolution, apparently a reference to Trump’s “pencil-neck” nickname for the California Democrat, would bar Schiff from handling classified information, launch an ethics investigation into his conduct and strike comments he made about Russian collusion with Trump from the congressional record.
Schiff is currently running for Senate in California against two other California Democratic representatives, Rep. Barbara Lee and Rep. Katie Porter, after Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) announced she would step down in 2024.