OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Former CIA director and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has leveled a serious accusation at Rep. Adam Schiff a day after the California Democrat was removed from his seat on the House Intelligence Committee, where he once served as chairman and ranking member.
“During my time as CIA director and secretary of state, I know that he leaked classified information that had been provided to him,” Pompeo, who is rumored to be considering a run for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, told Fox News on Wednesday.
Likely due to the nature of the intelligence, Pompeo did not offer specifics about what he shared and what Schiff allegedly leaked. However, he did say that the issue got so bad he had to restrict what he could share with members of Congress.
“Outnumbered” co-host Emily Compagno, after emphasizing what a huge problem that is, asked Pompeo why there hadn’t been any accountability if leaking that kind of information is “a felony at a minimum, up to treason.”
“It’s a complicated process, right? It’s difficult to pin down precisely what happened,” Pompeo explained. “But I could tell you that when we provided information to him and to his staff, it ended up in places it shouldn’t have been with alarming regularity. We could see it. In the end, I decided I held back information from them as a result.”
During his time in Congress, Pompeo, a graduate of Harvard Law School and the U.S. Military Academy, served on the Intelligence Committee, so he’s familiar with how it operates. He also explained that the information seen by the committee, as well as its counterpart in the Senate, is highly compartmentalized and privileged, and not every member of Congress can see it.
MIKE POMPEO: "The fact that…Schiff was the Chairman of the…Intelligence Committee almost ruined that committee…Schiff should be nowhere near serving on the Intelligence Committee. I don't think he should be seeing classified information." pic.twitter.com/3A0iwMc3Dq
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) January 25, 2023
He also said that Schiff’s behavior while acting as chairman “almost ruined that committee,” adding that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) “got it exactly right” by removing his Democratic colleague from it.
In addition, McCarthy removed Rep. Eric Swalwell, another California Democrat, from the committee over his questionable relationship about six years ago with a suspected Chinese spy. McCarthy explained during a testy exchange with a PBS reporter on Wednesday that he had received a briefing from the FBI about the relationship that led him to believe Swalwell is too compromised to be on the committee and be exposed to highly sensitive information.
“Let me be very clear and respectful to you,” McCarthy responded at one point. “You ask me a question, when I answer it, it’s the answer to your question. You don’t get to determine whether I answer your question or not, okay? With all respect, thank you. No, no. Let’s answer her question.”
“You just raised the question. I will be very clear with you. The Intel Committee is different, well, you know why? Because what happens in the Intel Committee, you don’t know. What happens in the Intel committee, other secrets are going on the world, other members of Congress don’t know,” McCarthy said.
“You have not had the briefing that I had,” McCarthy continued.
“I had the briefing, and Nancy Pelosi had the briefing from the FBI. The FBI never came before this Congress to tell the leadership of this Congress that Eric Swalwell had a problem with the Chinese spy until he served on Intel,” McCarthy continued.
“So it wasn’t just us who were concerned about it, the FBI was concerned about putting a member of Congress on the Intel committee that has the rights to see things that others don’t, because of his knowledge and relationship with a Chinese spy,” he said.
WATCH:
Schiff has denied leaking classified information in the past. “I haven’t. My staff hasn’t,” he told CNN in 2020, adding the caveat: “I can’t speak for what all the members of the committee have done or not done, including a lot of the Republican members.”
Pompeo isn’t the only one who has accused Schiff of leaking classified information. During his stint as acting Director of National Intelligence, Richard Grenell made the same accusation, claiming the Californian and his team “regularly leaked” classified material.
