Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) appears to have doctored evidence that he cited in Monday evening’s hearing at the January 6 committee, just as Schiff infamously did during the impeachment investigation into President Donald Trump in 2019.
The committee was discussing its motion to recommend that former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows be held in contempt of Congress for refusing to hand over information over which Trump has exerted executive privilege. (The full House voted to hold Meadows in contempt on Tuesday and referred him to the Department of Justice for prosecution.)
The Federalist reports, however, that Schiff doctored text messages he presented to the committee, altering the text and creating the false impression in a visual presentation that he was quoting original text messages rather than fabrications.
Sean Davis reports:
During a hearing Monday night on the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Adam Schiff claimed to have proof that a member of Congress texted former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to instruct former Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.
Not only did Schiff misrepresent the substance of the text message and its source, he even doctored original text messages, which were obtained and reviewed by The Federalist in their entirety.
One message, which Schiff attributed to a Republican lawmaker, was doctored to read: “On January 6, 2021, Vice President Mike Pence, as President of the Senate, should call out all electoral votes that he believes are unconstitutional as no electoral votes at all.”
He cited the message as an argument for compelling Meadows to testify, and holding him in contempt.
But the original message came from former Department of Defense Inspector General Joseph Schmitz, who had drafted and summarized legal arguments that Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) forwarded to Meadows. And Schiff left out the full exchange, which read (emphasis added):
On January 6, 2021, Vice President Mike Pence, as President of the Senate, should call out all the electoral votes that he believes are unconstitutional as no electoral votes at all — in accordance with guidance from founding father Alexander Hamilton and judicial precedence.
‘No legislative act,’ wrote Alexander Hamilton in Federalist No. 78, ‘contrary to the Constitution, can be valid.’ The court in Hubbard v. Lowe reinforced this truth: ‘That an unconstitutional statute is not a law at all is a proposition no longer open to discussion.’ 226 F. 135, 137 (SDNY 1915), appeal dismissed, 242 U.S. 654 (1916).
Following this rationale, an unconstitutionally appointed elector, like an unconstitutionally enacted statute, is no elector at all.
Schiff omitted the portions in bold, above, which referred to a legal basis for rejecting electors. As Davis reported:
In his statement and on-screen graphic, Schiff erased the final two paragraphs and the final clause of the first paragraph of the text message before inserting punctuation that was never there, all without disclosing what he was doing. The graphic displayed by Schiff, which was doctored to look like an exact screenshot, was similarly doctored, as it contained content that was never in the original message and eliminated content that was.
Schiff has repeatedly faked evidence in investigations. In 2019, at the opening hearing of the House Intelligence Committee investigation into President Trump, he faked a conversation between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
When caught, Schiff tried to claim that he was merely acting out a “parody,” rather than creating a false public impression.
Later, in arguments before the Senate in Trump’s impeachment trial, Schiff faked a Trump quote to Zelenskyy, again.
Fellow January 6 committee member Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) also faked evidence against Trump when he cited the Charlottesville “very fine people” hoax in Trump’s second impeachment trial. Trump’s defense then demolished the hoax.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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