The House of Representatives is set to consider a Republican-backed measure to censure Rep. Adam Schiff, a California Democrat and an outspoken critic of former President Donald Trump.
If passed, the measure, introduced by Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, a staunch Trump ally, would condemn Schiff and seek to fine him $16 million over his accusations that the former president had ties to Russia ahead of the 2016 election. Luna says $16 million is half the cost of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Schiff was the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee from 2015-2019, and the panel’s chairman from 2019 until earlier this year. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., removed Schiff from the panel earlier this year after Republicans reclaimed the House majority. Schiff also served as lead manager in Trump’s first impeachment trial in 2020 over accusations that he threatened to withhold military aid to Ukraine in exchange for help in his reeleciton bid.
The measure seeks to condemn Schiff “for conduct that misleads the American people in a way that is not befitting an elected Member of the House of Representatives.”
The censure measure was introduced as a privileged resolution, meaning the House must consider the bill by Thursday. House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark, D-Mass., announced Wednesday that lawmakers would vote on a motion to table the measure, effectively killing it.
Luna introduced the measure the same day that Trump pleaded not guilty in a Miami courtroom to 37 felony charges related to alleged mishandling of classified documents. Schiff, who is running for a U.S. Senate seat in California to replace retiring Sen. Dianne Feinstein, called the effort by Luna a means to distract from the former president’s legal troubles.
In a letter to his Democratic colleagues, Schiff called the motion “false and defamatory” and blasted it as “the latest attempt to gratify the former President’s MAGA allies, and distract from Donald Trump’s legal troubles by retaliating against me for my role in exposing his abuses of power, and leading the first impeachment against him.”
“The real goal is to intimidate to try to silence critics of the president,” Schiff said in a video posted to Twitter. “It takes issue with me for investigating Donald Trump for impeaching him for getting the first bipartisan vote to convict a president US history. They hope that I will back down but I will never back down. But what they’re also doing is trying to intimidate anyone else in the future, from speaking out against the twice-impeached, now twice-indicted, disgraced former president. This is an attack on our democracy, even as it’s an attack on me and the institution of Congress, but I will never back down.
It’s unclear whether the motion has enough support to pass. A Democratic staffer told Spectrum News they believe Republicans are split on the measure, leading to questions about whether Republicans have the votes.
At least one Republican lawmaker, Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, said that he will vote to kill the censure measure.
“Adam Schiff acted unethically but if a resolution to fine him $16 million comes to the floor I will vote to table it. (vote against it),” Massie wrote on Twitter, adding in a follow-up post: “The Constitution says the House may make its own rules but we can’t violate other (later) provisions of the Constitution. A $16 million fine is a violation of the 27th and 8th amendments.”
Another Democratic staffer told Spectrum News that “a vote for censure is a vote for [T]rump,” adding that they were “curious” to see how moderates vote on the measure.
