Gaetz Files PENCIL Resolution to Ban Schiff From Obtaining Classified Information

Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz reintroduced his ‘PENCIL ResolutionThursday, which would bar Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff from accessing any classified information about comments he made saying former President Donald Trump colluded with Russia.

“Congressman Adam Schiff led the effort for years to weaponize the lies of the Clinton campaign and a corrupt Justice Department to smear President Trump while destroying the trust the country had placed in America’s intelligence agencies.” , Gaetz. said in a statement.

The name of the resolution, an acronym for “Preventing Extreme Negligence with Classified Information Licensing,” is inspired by former President Donald Trump’s nickname for the California Democrat: “little pencil neck.”

Gaetz’s move comes after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy unilaterally removed Schiff, the former speaker, and Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell, from the House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday, alleging that Schiff “lied to the American Public” about “Russia Gate” and Hunter’s veracity. Biden’s laptop.

Republican representative Matt Gaetz. R-Florida (left) reintroduced its ‘PENCIL Resolution’ Thursday, which would bar Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, D-California (right) from accessing any classified information about comments he made saying former President Donald Trump colluded with Russia

“Speaker McCarthy made good on his promise to remove Representative Schiff from the Intelligence Committee, and with the PENCIL Resolution, we will express the view of Congress that he should be barred from accessing any classified information,” Gaetz said Thursday.

“He can no longer be trusted by either his colleagues in Congress or by the American people,” the Florida Republican added.

The resolution, which is similar to one by the same name Gaetz filed in 2019, calls for Schiff to lose his access to classified information, for the California Democrat to be investigated by the House Ethics Committee, and for any comments Schiff made. on Trump-Russia collusion was struck from the congressional record.

In the text of the resolution, Gaetz took particular offense when Schiff said there was “clear evidence on the issue of collusion” with respect to Trump, a statement he made in January 2019, when he took over as chairman of the Intelligence Committee of the Camera.

Before that, Schiff had said “the Russians offered help, the campaign accepted help, the Russians provided help, and the president made the most of that help,” in December 2017, another quote that Gaetz indicated was problematic.

The resolution notes that the “major findings of the Mueller report determined that there was no criminal collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.”

It claims that Schiff colluded with “rogue elements of the Department of Defense in an attempt to tarnish the reputation of former President Donald J. Trump.”

Schiff told a news conference Wednesday that House Republicans were attacking him for his leading role in Trump’s first impeachment trial, which centered on the now-former president calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and asking him to announce investigations into Joe and Hunter Biden, while holding hostage $400 million in military aid approved by Congress.

“The cardinal sin appears to be that I led the prosecution of your master at Mar-a-Lago for withholding hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid from Ukraine, a nation even then at war with Russia, to extort that country to help to Donald Trump’s re-election campaign,” Schiff said.

Schiff’s name was also in the news this week because he announced he would be running for the Senate to replace 89-year-old California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who has yet to officially announce her retirement.

Schiff is the second lawmaker to announce a run for the Senate, following Rep. Katie Porter of California earlier this month.

Rep. Barbara Lee also told her congressional colleagues that she plans to run, while Rep. Ro Khanna said she would make a decision in the coming months.