Adam Schiff doubles down on his lie about Russian collusion

He has narrowed his statement about in plain sight to disinformation on Konstantin Kilimnik

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): If you read the Mueller report, he makes clear even in the first few pages of the report that he states no conclusion on whether Donald Trump and his campaign colluded with the Russians.

But what he does reveal in his report, what we found in our investigation is that Donald Trump’s campaign manager was sharing internal campaign polling data and a strategy for key battleground states with an agent of Russian intelligence, while that same unit of Russian intelligence was helping the Trump campaign, both with the hacking-and-dumping operation, as well as a social media operation to elect Donald Trump.

This is a classic example of what we should define as "disinformation". It includes rumors being treated as fact, exaggeration, hyperbole, lying by omission, and a conclusion that is not based on evidence or logic.

The "agent" of Russian intelligence was Konstantin Kilimnik, who was not actually an "agent" of Russian intelligence. He was a Ukrainian citizen who the Mueller report suggested had "ties" to Russian intelligence (but never provided evidence to back up the claim). The Senate investigation went one step further and demanded he was "Russian intelligence officer" which is where Schiff it getting his information. This description is pretty much a flat out lie, since he was not even Russian and no evidence was ever produced to even prove the allegations of "ties".

Kilimnik was in fact a Ukrainian citizen who had been both a business associate and employee of Paul Manafort's international consulting business. He had previously worked for the The International Republican Institute and worked out of Moscow. That organization is American and works to promote Democracy. He was officially dismissed from that position after he started working for Manafort (which was considered against the code of ethics). There were unconfirmed allegations within the Mueller report that he was dismissed for leaking information to the Russians, but both Kilimnik and the IRI denied that was the reason behind his leaving. Schiff treats the allegation as fact and the official (and more logical) reason as a lie.

The exaggeration here is that even if the officially denied allegations without proof was actually true, that doesn't make Kilimnik an "agent" and the there was never any proof of Russian election interference, much less any real evidence that the alleged people who were provided information was responsible for anything. Not to mention, there is no logical reason to think that internal polling would even be helpful to any foreign government looking to interfere. The lack of any of this being useful is also ignored by Schiff.

Furthermore the Paul Manafort company in question was an international consultant and one of his clients was the Ukrainian Government. Kilimnik was an obvious point person for this relationship. Schiff refuses to acknowledge the obviously legitimate business reasons for Manafort and Kilimnik to be discussing the 2016 election and whether or not Donald Trump (not Hillary Clinton) might win. Who would be President would be extremely useful knowledge for Manafort/Kilimnik relationship with Ukraine. In fact, not only does Schiff ignore the legitimate reasons why Manafort might discuss polling and even strategy with Kilimnik, but he lies by omission by not even mentioning that Manafort and Kilimnik had any sort of business association. To hear Schiff tell the story, Manafort did not go to an available associate to discuss business strategy, but rather sought out a "Russian agent" for some unknown nefarious reason.

Schiff is a liar. He doubles down on this lies. Thus proving that McCarthy did the correct thing in removing him from the Intelligence committee.