Rep. Adam Schiff REFUSES to say if he will comply if subpoenaed by House Republicans

Top Democrat Rep. Adam Schiff on Sunday refused to rule out the possibility of him defying a Congressional subpoena, should the new House Republican majority call him to testify next year.

Schiff said he would have to ‘consider the validity’ of any such order – despite previously being quick to criticize others who resisted his January 6 committee’s subpoenas. 

The California Democrat has been a top political scalp for Republicans after his prominent role in Donald Trump‘s impeachments and investigating the ex-president as a member of the select committee investigating the US Capitol riot.

‘We will have to consider the validity of the subpoena. But I would certainly view my obligation, the administration’s obligation to follow the law,’ Schiff told CNN‘s State Of The Union.

As a shot across the aisle he added, ‘And the fact that they have disrespected the law is not a precedent I would hope that would be broadly followed.’ 

‘But we will have to look at the legitimacy or lack of legitimacy of what they do,’ Schiff said. 

Current House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy, who is expected to ascend to the Speakership next year, has pledged to strip Schiff of his committee assignments. 

Rep. Adam Schiff hit back at House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy after he vowed to strip his fellow California lawmaker from committee assignments in the new Congress

In the current Democrat-majority Congress, Schiff chairs the powerful House Intelligence Committee.

The lawmaker shot back on Sunday, claiming McCarthy’s plans for the gavel will exclusively revolve around what the ex-president wants and ignore the ‘serial abuse of power by Donald Trump.’

‘[Rep. James] Comer and [Rep. Jim] Jordan and McCarthy will do nothing but carry Donald Trump’s water,’ Schiff said.

‘They will say what they need to get along with Donald Trump.’

He also shot back at McCarthy’s plan to strip him of committee assignments over the Trump-Russia investigation.

‘McCarthy apparently doesn’t think it’s collusion if your campaign manager is giving inside polling data and battle strategy in key states to an agent of Russian intelligence, while the Russians are helping your campaign, but most Americans would call that collusion,’ Schiff said.

He added that McCarthy’s ‘problem’ would be in his caucus’ slim majority – meaning that he’ll need to work with more extreme lawmakers like Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar to pass GOP agenda items.

McCarthy has said he would do so over Schiff’s handling of the Trump-Russia investigation

‘He will do whatever they ask,’ Schiff said. ‘And, right now, they’re asking for me to be removed from our committees. And he’s willing to do it. He’s willing to do anything they ask.’

Schiff accused McCarthy of having ‘no ideology’ of his own whatsoever beyond wanting to accumulate power.

‘He has no core set of beliefs. It’s very hard not only to get to 218 that way. It’s even more difficult to keep 218. That’s his problem,’ Schiff said.

‘So, he will misrepresent my record. He will misrepresent Eric Swalwell or Ilhan Omar, whatever he needs to do to get the votes of the QAnon caucus within his conference.’

Swalwell and Omar have also been targeted bc McCarthy’s committee removal threats.

Democrats voted to do the same for Gosar and Greene while they’ve held the majority – Gosar for sharing a video depicting him attacking another member of Congress, and Greene for extremist comments and calls to violence she amplified before being elected to Capitol Hill.