In 2018 the House Intelligence Committee voted unanimously to release the transcripts of the Russia collusion witnesses. Adam Schiff also voted for their release. But once the Democrats became the majority in the House, Schiff shifted gears and even though 43 of the 53 transcripts have been declassified and examined to make sure there was no national security issues with the transcripts, Schiff refuses to release them because they would be devastating to the Democrats in the 2020 elections.
The declassification process, performed by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence took two years. (Thanks to the Deep State?) But now that they have completed that, the transcripts should be released to the public. They won’t ever be released unless Republicans retake the House in the November elections, which is a definite possibility.
One senior intelligence official told the Examiner:
“Adam Schiff is thwarting the will of the House Intelligence Committee as expressed in the bipartisan vote in September 2018 to make these transcripts public. He has appointed himself arbiter of what the public should see and has refused to allow the White House to review its own equities, making declassification of 10 of the transcripts impossible. It’s difficult to imagine any motive other than Schiff is still trying to control the narrative on Russia collusion.”
Here’s the issue, according to the Examiner:
A sticking point with the remaining 10 transcripts is the desire by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to allow the White House to review them as part of the declassification process.
In March 2019, under then-Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, ODNI staffers briefed the House Intelligence Committee that some of the interviews implicated “White House equities” and that the top spy office “looked for mention of interactions or communications with current or former [White House] and [National Security Council] officials either during transition or after descriptions of policies or direction established within the [White House] and [NSC]” as part of the declassification process, according to a letter Schiff sent to the ODNI obtained by the Washington Examiner. The ODNI said some of the witness testimony “could be privileged” and that a determination like that “can only be made by” the White House.
Schiff rejected the request from Coats a week later.
“Under no circumstances shall ODNI, or any other element of the Intelligence Community, share any HPSCI transcripts with the White House, President Trump, or any persons associated with the White House or the President,” Schiff wrote in his rejection letter. “Such transcripts remain the sole property of HPSCI, and were transmitted to ODNI for the limited purpose of enabling a classification review by IC elements and the Department of Justice.”