Radio Recap – DNI to Schiff: Release the Transcripts or I Will

The Acting Director of National Intelligence to Congressman Adam Schiff: release all fifty-three transcripts or I will.

On today’s Jay Sekulow Live we discussed Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell’s letter to House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff telling him to release the deposition interview transcripts.

This is big news. Remember, we’ve been talking about the fifty-three transcripts. These are people who didn’t ultimately testify but who provided depositions to the House Intelligence Committee in the Russia investigation. Way back in September of 2018, the House Intelligence Committee voted unanimously, with Democrats and Republicans agreeing, to release those transcripts. The catch was that first they’d have to be checked for classified information by the intelligence community.

Well, they went to the intelligence community and then Chairman Adam Schiff was holding ten depositions from the intelligence community. He had only sent forty-three to be declassified, which they were as of a few weeks ago. Now, all fifty-three, because we put that pressure on, have been declassified. So the Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell sent a letter to Chairman Schiff notifying him that the transcripts of all the fifty-three interviews, over six thousand pages in all, have been cleared for public release.

Acting Director Grenell wrote in the letter to Chairman Schiff:

I urge you to honor your previous public statements, and your committee’s unanimous vote on this matter, to release all 53 cleared transcripts to Members of Congress and the American public as soon as possible.

I am also willing to release the transcripts directly from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, as to ensure we comply with the unanimous and bipartisan vote to release the transcripts.

My dad, Jay Sekulow, made the following point:

He has an obligation. He has the right to engage this and I think that’s exactly what he’s going to do. He’s making it clear. So I think we have to realize here what’s at stake and what’s at play. What’s at play is Adam Schiff does not want to do what is his constitutional responsibility. That’s what this really boils down to. He voted to do it and now he doesn’t want to. So now Richard Grenell says fine, I have the authority, I’ll do it.

He’s said so far that he’s complied with the weird request by Chairman Schiff not to share this with anyone at the White House, even though the White House oversees the Executive Branch and the Director of National Intelligence. He’s complied for now.

I think he’s got a timer running for Chairman Schiff. I don’t know what the timer is, but clearly there’s a timer and these deposition transcripts are going to be released.

You can listen to the entire episode, complete with much more in-depth analysis and discussion by our team, here.