Schiff: 'We couldn't have known' about lies behind Steele dossier

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Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., chair of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, defended his longtime promotion of the now-discredited Steele dossier by claiming that his team "couldn't have known" that Igor Danchenko, the Russian analyst believed to have been the dossier's sub-source, had allegedly lied to former British spy Christopher Steele.

"Well, first of all, whoever lied to the FBI or lied to Christopher Steele should be prosecuted, and they are," Schiff said on "The View" Tuesday. 

"But at the beginning of the Russia investigation, I said that any allegations should be investigated," he continued. "We couldn't have known, for example, people were lying to Christopher Steele."

DURHAM INDICTMENT OF DANCHENKO CASTS NEW SCRUTINY ON DEMOCRATS WHO HYPED STEELE DOSSIER

Yet Schiff's intelligence committee had extensive access to key sources in the Russia collusion investigation and access to Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team. The committee conducted some 40 hours of hearings into the dossier and related matters. Schiff finally released the transcripts in May 2020, after then-President Trump threatened to release them, and the results seemed inconvenient for his narrative. 

Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper had told Schiff and his colleagues, "I never saw any direct empirical evidence that the Trump campaign or someone in it was plotting/conspiring with the Russians to meddle with the election." 

Meanwhile, Mueller's team issued more than 2,800 subpoenas, executed nearly 500 search warrants, interviewed more than 500 witnesses, and obtained more than 230 orders for communications records. The special counsel likely compiled thousands, if not millions, of documents and pieces of evidence, including a $15,000 ostrich jacket worn by Trump’s former campaign chairman and encrypted text messages to hard drives and laptops. 

At its high point, Mueller's team included 19 attorneys who worked alongside approximately 40 FBI agents, intelligence analysts, forensic accountants, a paralegal, and professional staff the FBI assigned to assist the investigation. 

It remains unclear whether or not Mueller's team collaborated with the House intelligence committee, but Mueller's report repeatedly cited the interviews the committee conducted in its investigation. A spokesperson for the committee declined to comment on the matter.

DURHAM CHARGES STEELE DOSSIER SUB-SOURCE WITH FIVE COUNTS OF MAKING FALSE STATEMENTS TO THE FBI

Schiff did not respond to Fox News' request for comment by press time. 

Special counsel Robert Mueller. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

"Somehow, with access to the exact same information as Schiff, his Intel Committee counterpart Devin Nunes knew from the beginning that the dossier was fraudulent, and Nunes said so," Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, told Fox News on Wednesday.

"Of course, Schiff knew that the dossier was a fraud, as he had access to the same secret information that Rep. Nunes uncovered that showed the dossier and the FISA warrants were garbage," Fitton insisted. "And Schiff allegedly said he had specific evidence to back up the key fake claims of the Steele Dossier. He was obviously lying. That he is still the Chairman of the Intelligence Committee undermines our national security. Schiff can’t be trusted."

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Last week, Special Counsel John Durham issued an indictment against Danchenko, whose input served as the basis for Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants against Trump campaign aide Carter Page. The Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign funded the dossier through the law firm Perkins Coie.

According to Durham's indictment, in March, May, June, October and November 2017, Danchenko made false statements regarding the sources of certain information he provided to Steele's firm, information that ultimately got passed to the FBI. 

(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)