FCC wants answers on Schiff's secret subpoenas

FPI / March 13, 2020

In releasing a report which included the phone records of Rep. Devin Nunes, Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, journalist John Solomon, and others, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff abused his subpoena power, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr said.

Carr tweeted on March 12: "Chairman Schiff has been collecting Americans’ private call records through a secret & partisan process. He even published some of them in the Impeachment Report. These sensitive records are protected by federal law. His conduct raises serious concerns & I’ve asked for answers."

Carr said he sent the House Intelligence Committee a formal letter not only calling out their prior actions, but indicating that Schiff/the Committee may still be getting people’s records. Carr mentions substantial fines in his letter, but also said further action could be taken.

"By proceeding in secret, Schiff deprived Americans - from private citizens to his political opponents to a journalist - of their legal right to go to court and seek to maintain the confidentiality of their sensitive call records," Carr said.

Carr continued: "As a country, are we comfortable with one political party in Congress having the unilateral & unchecked power to secretly obtain & publicize the confidential call records of any private citizen, journalist, or government official? Chairman Schiff has been doing exactly that.

The records in the report released by Schiff during House impeachment hearings didn’t contain the content of the conversations but included who called who and how long the call lasted.

"What made it especially troubling was Schiff wouldn’t explain who was subpoenaed or how, and if it was a Congressional subpoena straight to the companies," Nick Arama wrote for RedState on March 12. "It was a troubling abuse of power."

Arama noted that "While Carr acknowledged that there might be instances in which Schiff could subpoena call records, Carr said the problem was that Schiff did this in secret, without giving the people whose records were grabbed the opportunity to respond or fight the request.

"If that’s allowed, that’s a tremendous abuse of power if members of Congress can just demand phone records from the phone company about any American without any court and without any check."

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