Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) is said to be eyeing the Senate seat currently held by Dianne Feinstein, 89, as rumors swirl over if she’ll retire ahead of 2024 after 30+ years of service and persistent questions as to the state of her mental health.
But though the manipulative Democratic lawmaker is preparing to lose his leadership position as House Intelligence Committee Chair in the aftermath of House Republicans retaking control, he’s still up to the same old behind the scenes search and destroy antics that slithery objects like Schiff like to engage in when they think no one is looking.
In the latest example, Schiff inadvertently exposed himself when he accidentally sent a letter to some House Republicans that was meant only for his Democratic colleagues.
In one version, he encouraged his colleagues to put pressure on Facebook (now known as “Meta”) to continue their bans on former President Donald Trump’s FB and Instagram accounts. Facebook originally suspended Trump shortly after the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot but in June of that same year voted to keep him locked out of until at least January 7, 2023, pending further review.
The other version of the letter was one that Schiff reportedly sent directly to Meta demanding they keep Trump, who last month declared his 2024 presidential candidacy, off the platform “beyond January.”
Apparently Rep. Diana Harshbarger (R-Tenn.) was one of the Republican members of Congress who received the copy of the letter (in error) urging Democrats to put pressure on Facebook. She wrote about it on her Twitter feed:
Below are screengrabs of the letters, which interestingly enough are not on Schiff’s press release page as of this writing:
Previously, Schiff has also sent letters to Meta urging them to continue and strengthen their censorship tactics as it relates to alleged “vaccine misinformation” and the “spread [of] dangerous hate, conspiracies, and misinformation.”
This is the first known instance of Schiff using his power in Congress to lean on Meta to ban or continue their ban on specific accounts, however, and it comes just as we’ve learned much more about the levels of Democrat lawmaker involvement in having the New York Post’s Hunter Biden laptop story suppressed on Twitter in October 2020.
In December 2019, Schiff was ripped by Republicans after he crossed the line in releasing the personal phone records of, among others, then-ranking member Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), two of then-President Trump’s personal attorneys including Rudy Giuliani, as well as journalist John Solomon.
“This act was brazen and shameful,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) wrote at the time. “While it may not have been illegal (because Congress writes its own rules on investigations) it certainly was wrong. It certainly tramples on rights normally held dear by the left.”
“But most of all what it did was expose that Schiff, for all of his pompous bluster, is doing exactly what he has accused President Trump of doing: using his power to investigate his political opponents,” Paul continued.
Sadly, Schiff is proof of the old saying about how you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. Fortunately come January, though, his power will be greatly diminished once the new Congress is sworn in.