FBI Director Kash Patel labeled Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA) as “the biggest fraud ever to sit in the US Senate” during a heated exchange in his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The conflict escalated after Schiff pursued questioning based on the White House’s political motivations, implying that Patel dismissed FBI agents from the Epstein case.
Schiff pressed Patel not just about Epstein, but also questioned why he hadn’t made Epstein’s “Black Book” public, even though it had been released. He further confronted him over convicted Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell.
Tempers flared between them:
According to Breitbart News, Schiff has harbored animosity toward Patel for years.
Since 2017, Schiff has aimed to undermine Patel after Patel revealed that members of the Obama administration had “unmasked” the identities of Americans linked to foreign surveillance.
Schiff, who serves as the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, previously tried to counter the Republican majority’s assertion that Carter Page, who was associated with Donald Trump, had warranted FBI surveillance.
His claims were later discredited by a Justice Department report that looked into Republican allegations of abuse at the FBI’s Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court targeting Trump.
During President Trump’s investigations, under Schiff’s chairmanship, Democrats sought to pin evidence of Russian “back-channeling” on Patel. A quote from this period maintains that the communications between then-Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani and Patel merely highlighted that the committee intruded on the President’s Sixth Amendment rights by monitoring his lawyer.
Subsequently, Schiff participated in the January 6th committee, again pursuing Patel, but did not uncover any evidence of fraud. This also resulted in delays, and the transcript of closed-door interviews with the committee became available.
Schiff utilized his Senate time to delve into broader national politics, picking apart the initial Trump strategies and continuing threads from the January 6 committee.
