President Donald Trump is being criticized for comments he gave to ABC on Wednesday that he would listen if a foreign government offered negative information on a political opponent.
On Thursday morning Trump went after both California Rep. Adam Schiff and Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrats on the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, for what he says is similar behavior, claiming that both took calls from alleged Russian operatives about negative information on him without calling the FBI.
“When Senator @MarkWarnerVA spoke at length, and in great detail, about extremely negative information on me, with a talented entertainer purporting to be a Russian Operative, did he immediately call the FBI? NO, in fact he didn’t even tell the Senate Intelligence Committee of … which he is a member,” Trump tweeted. “When @RepAdamSchiff took calls from another person, also very successfully purporting to be a Russian Operative, did he call the FBI, or even think to call the FBI? NO!”
Facts First: This is untrue. Both Schiff and Warner say they did call the FBI about the contacts Trump is likely referring to, and their communications at the time back that up.
Trump appears to have switched the two episodes he is referring to with Warner and Schiff, as it was Schiff who would have received a call from a “talented entertainer.” In 2017, Schiff spoke to someone by phone purporting to be a Ukrainian government official claiming to have proof the Russians had compromising information, “kompromat,” on Trump.
The call actually turned out to be two Russian comedians, and the pranksters leaked audio of the phone call with Schiff.
But in the audio, which was first reported by The Atlantic last year, Schiff tells the caller he’s going to speak to the FBI and encourages the official to do the same. “I’ll be in touch with the FBI about this. And we’ll make arrangements with your staff. I think it probably would be best to provide these materials both to our committee and to the FBI,” Schiff says.
Schiff said on Thursday that he called the FBI before speaking to the pranksters.
“We did go to the FBI,” Schiff told reporters. “The first thing we did was call the FBI, even before we received the call from these individuals.”
The FBI declined to comment when asked about communications with Schiff and Warner.
For Warner, Trump is likely referring to his lengthy text message exchange in 2017 with Adam Waldman, a lobbyist who was connected to both Christopher Steele, author of the infamous dossier, and Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. The outreach was part of an ultimately unsuccessful effort for the committee to interview both Steele and Deripaska.
Trump has previously attacked Warner over the texts, which were leaked to Fox News last year.
But when Waldman initially reached out over text message, Warner called the FBI about the communication.
“I called the FBI,” Warner told reporters Thursday.
In the text message chain between Warner and Waldman, Warner responds to Waldman’s initial request and phone call by saying, “Have had important call about ur message will have answer tomorrow.”
That call was to the FBI, a Warner aide said.
Waldman also notes soon after that he was speaking with officials at the Justice Department. “DOJ called me today; we will talk at 530,” Waldman writes to Warner several weeks after they began communicating.
In addition to Warner’s calls to the FBI, Trump is incorrect that Warner didn’t inform the Senate Intelligence Committee. Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr was aware of the communications with Waldman and the committee leaders told panel members about the text messages before they were made public.
“Sen. Warner fully disclosed this to the committee four months ago. Has had zero impact on our work,” Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, tweeted after the texts became public.
CNN’s David Shortell and Manu Raju contributed to this report.
