#Ex-State Dept. spox slams Schiff over Russia probe on ‘The View’

Former Trump State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus went at House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) on “The View” Tuesday, asking if he regretted talking up the Steele dossier in the wake of the latest indictment secured by special counsel John Durham.

“You defended, promoted, you even read into the Congressional Record the Steele dossier,” began Ortagus, serving as a guest host on the ABC gabfest this week. “And we know last week the main source of the dossier was indicted by the FBI for lying about most of the key claims in that dossier. Do you have any reflections on your role in promoting this to the American people?”

Schiff responded that anyone who lied to the FBI or Steele should be prosecuted and sent to jail if convicted, “unlike in the Trump administration”.

“At the beginning of the Russia investigation, I said that any allegations should be investigated,” Schiff argued. “We couldn’t have known, for example [that], people were lying to Christopher Steele. So it was proper to investigate them.”

Later in the exchange, Ortagus suggested that Schiff “may have helped spread Russian disinformation yourself for years by promoting” the dossier.

“I think that’s what Republicans and what people who entrusted you as the Intel Committee chair are so confused about, your culpability in all of this,” she added.

“Well, I completely disagree with your premise,” Schiff countered. “It’s one thing to say allegations should be investigated and they were. It’s another thing to say that we should have foreseen in advance that some people were lying to Christopher Steele, which is impossible, of course, to do.

“But let’s not use that as a smokescreen to somehow shield Donald Trump’s culpability for inviting Russia to help him in the election, which they did, for trying to coerce Ukraine into helping him in the next election, which he did … None of that serious misconduct is in any way diminished by the fact that people lied to Christopher Steele.”

“No,” Ortagus shot back. “I think just your credibility is.”