The whistleblower also claimed the info was released to influence public opinion.
Democrat Senator Adam Schiff directed the leaking of classified documents to target President Donald Trump and influence public opinion, according to whistleblower claims in newly declassified FBI documents.
A whistleblower who worked for the Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee told the FBI that Schiff had pushed for the leaking of classified documents in a meeting after Trump’s election in 2016, according to a summary of the interview obtained by Just the News. Schiff was a major proponent of the discredited narrative that Trump schemed with the Russians to get elected in 2016.
The whistleblower claimed that Schiff orchestrated a plan to hurt Trump by leaking classified documents, according to the interview.
“In this meeting, SCHIFF stated the group would leak classified information which was derogatory to President of the United States Donald J. TRUMP. SCHIFF stated the information would be used to Indict President TRUMP,” the FBI memo said. “[Redacted] stated this would be illegal and, upon hearing his concerns, unnamed members of the meeting reassured [Redacted] that they would not be caught leaking classified information.”
The whistleblower believed that this leaking would be “unethical,” “illegal,” and “treasonous.” The whistleblower was later “approached about leaking classified information in a separate meeting by unnamed individuals,” the FBI memo says.
The interview documents were declassified by FBI Director Kash Patel.
“We found it. We declassified it,” Patel posted on X. “Now Congress can see how classified info was leaked to shape political narratives — and decide if our institutions were weaponized against the American people.”
Over the course of several years, the whistleblower conducted multiple interviews with the FBI which were then summarized by the agent who conducted the interviews in a series of memos.
In one August 2017 interview, the whistleblower said that Democrats on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence believed that they could bring down Trump with document leaks to the media.
“Schiff believed Russia hijacked the election, and the United States was in the middle of a constitutional crisis. Classified information began leaking to the media. The Democratic minority leadership of HPSCI was aware of the leaks but was under the impression that leaking the information was one way to topple the administration and fix the constitutional crisis,” the whistleblower told the FBI.
In another interview from December 5, 2017, the whistleblower reportedly said that Schiff was “particularly upset” after the election of Trump because he believed that Hillary Clinton would have appointed him CIA director.
The whistleblower claimed that Schiff told staff to gather information about Trump and Russia that would “be made public through the media in order to compel public opinion.”
In one instance, the whistleblower noticed that a sensitive document viewed in the summer of 2017 by a few members of the committee “appeared in the news almost verbatim” within 24 hours of its review.
The whistleblower “suspected that [Rep. Eric Swalwell] played a role in the leak and noted that SWALWELL previously had been warned to be careful because he had a reputation for leaking classified information.”
According to the whistleblower, Schiff believed that the strategy of leaking documents was protected by the speech and debate clause that gives lawmakers immunity for what they say during legislative actions.
Patel has sent the FBI memos over to Congress for review.
