Former Rep. Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, said he personally witnessed then-House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff leaking and twisting classified information during Trump's first administration, telling Newsmax on Thursday it happened right in front of lawmakers in real time.
Speaking with host Rob Finnerty on "Finnerty," Wenstrup recalled an example involving former White House aide Hope Hicks.
"At one time when he was conducting some of his investigations, ... he had Hope Hicks in from the White House," Wenstrup said. "While she was still in there, things that she had said were not only twisted, but running across the screen on CNN while she was still in the room. This was going on each and every day. So this isn't new. This was a standard."
Wenstrup said the culture of leaks and partisan attacks ended only when Republicans regained the House majority and then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy took decisive action.
"When we got the majority again, Kevin McCarthy came in and he got [House Minority Leader] Hakeem Jeffries to come in. And they told us ..., "If you leak, you are gone from these committees,'" Wenstrup said.
"McCarthy got rid of Adam Schiff and [California Rep.] Eric Swalwell, which were two of the major components ... actively going after Trump each and every day and going out onto the media — a compliant media, I might say."
He also pointed to the now-infamous clash over the 2018 former Devin Nunes memo, which detailed FBI abuses in securing Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants.
"You can go back to the Nunes memo, which proved to be 100% correct," Wenstrup said. "And then Adam Schiff came out with a memo denying everything, changing everything. And he was never challenged by the media."
Citing Inspector General Michael Horowitz's findings that the FBI violated its own rules 17 times in the FISA process, Wenstrup said top intelligence and law enforcement officials — including James Comey, Andrew McCabe, John Brennan, and James Clapper — knew about the Clinton campaign's plan to smear Trump and did nothing to stop it.
"President [Barack] Obama knew that Hillary Clinton was going to plan a scandal because John Brennan told him that," Wenstrup said. "Instead of shutting it down, ... they let it go. They did nothing."
Wenstrup added that under Schiff's control, Republican reports exposing these issues were buried and kept classified, preventing public scrutiny. But he said the truth is finally emerging, citing Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard's recent public remarks.
"Now things are different," Wenstrup said. "The American people are finding out the truth."
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