US President Donald Trump has suggested that House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff should be arrested for “treason” for reading a “fake” statement about his call to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Trump blasted Schiff amid a fresh batch of tweets early Monday, saying that he “illegally made up a FAKE & terrible” statement, pretending it was the words the US president had said on his controversial call with Zelensky.
Schiff read his own “parody” interpretation of the call during a congressional hearing last week, prompting outrage from the president and other Republicans.“It bore NO relationship to what I said on the call. Arrest for Treason?” Trump wrote.
The latter previously tweeted that Schiff should be investigated “at the highest level” and said he deserved a chance to “meet his accuser.”
Democrats have accused Trump of pressuring the Ukrainian leader to investigate former VP Joe Biden after he allegedly interfered in a corruption investigation into a Ukrainian company that his son Hunter worked for.
Schiff has been known to dramatize Trump’s alleged wrongdoings, even claiming during the years-long Russiagate investigation that he had personally seen evidence that the president had “colluded” with Russia to win the 2016 election.
The Russiagate narrative fizzled out, however, after the official probe into Trump’s relationship with Russia turned up no actual evidence of collusion.
Democrats have used Trump’s call with Zelensky to launch an impeachment inquiry, arguing that the president was offering the Ukrainian leader a quid pro quo, more US military aid in return for a probe into Biden and his family. However, a transcript of the call, which the White House released last week, does not explicitly prove Trump made military aid dependent on investigating Biden.
The controversy was set in motion earlier this month after a “whistleblower” came forward with an “urgent concern” that Trump had acted inappropriately during the call with Zelensky.
